My main thought as someone who was an early stage employee at some high tech startups in the Silicon Valley in the 1990's, is that to the extent there is some t

My main thought as someone who was an early stage employee at some high tech startups in the Silicon Valley in the 1990's, is that to the extent there is some truth in the poster's "three class society" of investors, founders, and mere employee engineers and I think there is, this was often true in the 1990's and is nothing new invented by Y-Combinator or other newer firms. Often in a successful startup (most failed) in the 1990's, the venture capitalists or other investors seemed to walk away with the lion's share of the money from the acquisition or IPO, the founders and perhaps a few other key insiders would make several millions, and the "run of the mill" engineers would get a few hundred thousand dollars if they actually lasted the four year vesting period of the stock options. Many seemed to leave or be pushed out before the four year vesting period. I would draw a distinction between a typical successful startup that might be acquired or IPO for about one hundred million dollars and what today would be called a "unicorn," a rare super-successful startup that might sell for a billion or more. In a unicorn, some early stage "run of the mill" engineers or for that matter janitors can sometimes come away with millions, set for life, but this is not typical of successful startups then or now.