Ask HN: How do you choose a startup to work at as an early employee?

I am an engineering undergraduate currently in my final year (New Delhi, India). Soon I'll be graduating and working in a job. I've always found working at startups more rewarding than working at large or mid size tech firms. I am interested in joining a startup as an early employee. But the problem is how do I identify a startup which works with cutting edge technology and has the right people to do the job? That is how do you identify a startup that could be equivalent of Google, Dropbox, Microsoft, Stripe and the likes. There is tons of data here at Hacker News, Angel list, Crunch Base, TNW index but I find it hard to filter out the noise from the signal.