You are right. And this is one of the places where an employee takes a bigger risk than a founder. An employee needs references from previous employers. A foun

You are right. And this is one of the places where an employee takes a bigger risk than a founder. An employee needs references from previous employers. A founder does not need any references from employees. It is often the case this risk is underestimated and not compensated sufficiently. There is a need to normalize startup employee comp, in a similar manner founders package was normalized about two decades back. It was YC that did it, AFAIK.