I disagree - at the end of the day, it comes down to if I trust the people in charge (board/founders/investors) since there is basically nothing an employee at

I disagree - at the end of the day, it comes down to if I trust the people in charge (board/founders/investors) since there is basically nothing an employee at a startup can do to protect themselves from those people. I could be diluted to practically nothing, there can be a 'sale' where only 'chosen' people make real cash via golden handcuffs/consulting agreements/signing bonuses, IP can be licensed into a new company, etc. Depending on the details, some of those things might provide a cause of action for a civil suit but, in practice, I'm not going to get into a protracted court case over, at most, a few hundred thousand. It isn't enough money for a lawyer to take the case on contingency, and I wouldn't want to spend $(X)XX,000 out of pocket or gain a reputation for being litigious. (Of course, the calculus changes if the company is the next Google or FB - but 1000x+ returns are exceedingly rare).