Just to bring some perspective...when I was starting out, I was a teacher. I put in 12-16 hour days, got paid the inflation adjusted equivalent of 23k/yr, and p

Just to bring some perspective...when I was starting out, I was a teacher. I put in 12-16 hour days, got paid the inflation adjusted equivalent of 23k/yr, and put school supplies on my CC while facing the significant opportunity cost of spending my most energetic years empowering others. I finally burned out and “retired” to 10x the salary at half the time and energy cost. My point is that people will do things that are not in their financial interests because they are believers. Early employees are believers. I think you are underestimating the amount that early employees are putting on the line, including things like out of pocket costs for services for those businesses. People ARE doing it wrong, if rationally self-interested is your metric.