Millennials founding tech startups: calculated risk with enduring reward

Abandoning a six-figure Silicon Valley job to start from scratch could be a pipe dream. Or it could be a rare opportunity in a 'place where they reward failure'

"This might be one of the worst decisions I've ever made in my life," said Thomas So. On the other hand, it could be a risk that pays off big time, the 24-year-old calculates. Last month, So walked away from a programming job at a Silicon Valley startup paying him a six-figure salary, leaving behind stock options worth (he calculates) millions more, to join a startup that at that point was being funded with cash from its founders' credit cards.

Nor was he alone. Mike Eidlin, one of the four co-founders of bookmarq, a fledgling social networking site whose goal is to link booklovers worldwide, abandoned his fledgling career as an investment banker with Citigroup in Tokyo to return to the San Francisco Bay area, and re-start his career from scratch.