I think developers found start-ups for different reasons to other entrepreneurs.<p>As an employee, being a developer is largely a crap job in which you get little respect and virtually no power (on the plus side, you get pretty good remuneration).<p>The only way a developer can get the respect and power (over what work they do) they desire is by setting up on their own. This is why so many developers have side projects, I think.<p>In short, I think developers are driven by the desire to escape the monotony and powerlessness of the typical developer role in a company, and they are prepared to forego a huge wad of cash to do this. Making loads of cash is a bonus.
I'm driven by (roughly in this order):
1) Desire to have a minimum standard of living (basically, $100-200k in the bay area); you could get this from a lot of sources beyond entrepreneurship. Also, safety (physical, employment even if a startup fails, etc.). This is basically "satisficed"; $100k and $300k are obviously different, but the annual salary difference isn't 3x improvement. Say it is sublinear.
2) Desire to change the world (this can scale, and is almost superlinear; making a major positive change is worth more than a few smaller changes)<p>I think "huge wealth" (>$10mm personal exit, etc.) goes into the latter category, since it lets you influence a lot of things, including other startups. Smaller wealth is more like a personal annuity, so if the alternative were not having a job at all, it would be important, but it's easy enough to get a great job in the bay area even if you don't have $2mm in the bank.
In the pivoted section, the author wrote, "It’s an unparalleled feeling interacting with initial users, probably the best way to get high."<p>This is probably the best description I have ever read for this part of the entrepreneurship experience. Thanks for posting this article!