> Most people don't understand how much work goes into actually making a startup happen and flame out pretty quickly...alas... It's not just the amount of work

> Most people don't understand how much work goes into actually making a startup happen and flame out pretty quickly...alas... It's not just the amount of work that dissuades people. It's the overall value proposition. Usually if you can get someone in the door and they truly believe the company will be successful, they do everything necessary to cling to the company. No one wants to give up a chance to own a piece of a future successful startup. At minimum, they want some of their equity to vest in exchange for the work they've put in to get to this point. When people believe the company will succeed but don't want to put in the effort, they keep up appearances until their founder vesting cliff. It's unfortunately a common problem for startups to have a zombie cofounder who doesn't want to give up their equity but isn't pulling their way. They want to force the other cofounders to give them their equity as compensation for the (minimal) work they put in. If cofounders are simply walking away and surrendering equity, it's likely that there are bigger problems than just the amount of work. In these cases, it's likely that the cofounders just didn't believe the company was headed for success.