True - probably, founders have no choice. One side note though: it's increasingly common for founder's to cash out a few million in later stage rounds, often un

True - probably, founders have no choice. One side note though: it's increasingly common for founder's to cash out a few million in later stage rounds, often under wraps, to "keep them from being tempted to take lower buyout offers" is the usual theory, which is code for getting them to be more aligned with the investors. In any case, those deals are often not accessible to employees, just founders. The most cynical take is that the investors are buying them off to be not just more aligned with investors, but less aligned with employees =)