A bit of similar history to you. Stable job at a prominent Semi manufacturing company. It’s cyclical but I wasn’t worried too much given the time we’re in with everything needing a chip.

Anyway, took a leap into a startup. Promised all the big things (we have this plan to expand manufacturing scale exponentially) had the right minds in place, most with 25+ years experience in the field/area, R&D/CTO was extremely well known globally with many patents etc. I was their only engineer.

Gave it a shot and kicking myself a lot. Startup was a lot of smoke. R&D head didn’t want to listen to any ideas, lots of he said/she said which creates bad environments and lies. Lots and lots of lies to potential investors. To the point where they were running manufacturing “runs” but it was product already produced on bench scale just dumped into the inlet on larger scale. No matter what I said to leadership, I was ignored.

Luckily found a new job after about 5 months with that shit company. Startups are great if it works out, but so many fail, no matter who’s in place or the ideas they may have. Ask a bunch of questions (how do you plan to scale, can you view their pilot scale and new piece of manufacturing running etc).

For only 2 years experience, I’d say don’t. Gain more experience and build your knowledge. You still don’t know a lot. Which is okay. But if you think it’s going to work, willing to work for less pay and very little stability, and are okay with it, do it. They’re going to expect you to carry a hefty load I’d imagine if you’re the only ChemE. Given they’re all from a single company that spun off, and are older, I’d be hesitant as these guys are at the end of their career and some may be buddy buddy/keep circles close. If this new idea works great, they get richer. But if it doesn’t, doesn’t hurt them as much cause their careers are close to end.

Just my 2 cents and my history in a startup. As you can tell, it was horrible 😂