> The FB and Google scenarios were vanishing outliers. Not my point. > The remaining 99% of early tech employees for other companies will end up with equity w

> The FB and Google scenarios were vanishing outliers. Not my point. > The remaining 99% of early tech employees for other companies will end up with equity worth a house down payment if they are lucky, worth a few months of rent in the usual case, and often worth nothing. Agreed. People are disillusioned to believe they'll become one of the "first 1000 have become millionaires". My point is that this a motivating factor, even if incorrectly assumed by most people. https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/ https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/ > I assume you have not been through a significant tech bear market from your comment To be clear - wasn't there only one tech bear market that is historically significant? (2001) If so, I would greatly challenge that we will hit another one similar to that anytime soon. Is there a frothy market right now? Yes. However most tech companies today have the discounted future economics to sustain themselves in an downturn. In 2001 that was not the case - you had companies IPO'n with 0 in revenue. A macro economic downturn is absolutely right around the corner, but a "fall out the bottom" bear tech market is very far from us.