Its because startups have become much "cooler" now, compared to back then. Plus its hard to get good returns investing elsewhere. Plus the lowered-bar (i.e. clo

Its because startups have become much "cooler" now, compared to back then. Plus its hard to get good returns investing elsewhere. Plus the lowered-bar (i.e. cloud) to starting a large scale company So this pushes more people to do it, more companies, more investors ... and so over time "stuff gets figured out" and optimized and here's where we end up. For instance, pretend you have a water leak and call 5 plumbers...how many of them charge basically the same (high) price ... I too had an experience like you ... company IPO'd in 2001 and many initial engineers got $5+M including someone who started as the admin ... turning $2m into $1BN with no addiitional funding or down-rounds will do that :)