Ask PG: An essay on how to evaluate startups for prospective employees

I made an Ask HN post here about a year and a half ago titled "How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4340196

PG expressed interest in writing an essay on how potential employees should go about evaluating startups, especially on distinguishing 'true Bill Gateses from mere good talkers'. (If this already exists, I have overlooked it. Please let me know).

I think such an essay would be great to motivate engineers at Big Corps who are considering making the leap into the start up world. I know I could have used something like this myself.

But maybe the range of startups and the breadth of potential employees is too large to be generalized.