In my experience talented early employees tend to take a tremendous amount of insufficiently-compensated risk. The founders can of course lay them off at any ti

In my experience talented early employees tend to take a tremendous amount of insufficiently-compensated risk. The founders can of course lay them off at any time, dilute them, give them paychecks that bounce, outsource their jobs after a year or two, sell so much equity that employees stay underwater or barely in the money, etc. The founders take a lot of risk themselves, but they are in control, and they usually reward themselves for it. Whereas volumes could be written about early employees at successful companies who maybe got a solid bay area house downpayment out of their stock options, after working 60+ hours a week for ten years.