Because founders take at least 100x the risk of an early employee, and 100x the personal risk and commitment.
Absolute rubbish. Considering the opportunity cost, lost benefits and so on compared to a BigCo an early stage employee is easily going to be 6-figures in, and probably working 80+ hours a week. All so the founders can toss them a few scraps from the feast.
Meaningful equity participation or big-company pay and benefits. Anything else is pure exploitation and the founders and VCs know it.
What's rubbish is thinking that people don't have personal responsibility. If someone who can "easily" get 6-figures and the luxurious benefits of a BigCo decide to work for a startup instead, then that's their choice and there's no moral judgement needed.
This isn't an elaborate con involving lies and deceit, it's a pretty clear setup and is offered in writing before you start which you have to accept. There are 1000s of articles now about working in startups and how equity works, along with fair ratios. The research is minutes away and is no different than checking the paperwork for any other part of your employment.
Could you please stop posting low-substance, high-acid comments to Hacker News? You've done it a ton, it damages the site, and we've asked you repeatedly not to. Plenty of people are arguing civilly and substantively for views similar to yours in this thread. It's not hard!
Absolute rubbish. Considering the opportunity cost, lost benefits and so on compared to a BigCo an early stage employee is easily going to be 6-figures in, and probably working 80+ hours a week. All so the founders can toss them a few scraps from the feast.
Meaningful equity participation or big-company pay and benefits. Anything else is pure exploitation and the founders and VCs know it.