I dunno if I agree with this. If you're early on in your career, jumping in as employee #20 can be an optimal time to learn a whole lot by working directly wit

I dunno if I agree with this. If you're early on in your career, jumping in as employee #20 can be an optimal time to learn a whole lot by working directly with all the key senior people in the company. If you're later on in your career, an employee #20 is likely jumping on board to work with people they know and trust. From a strict compensation perspective, you are probably right, but even then, it is probably less stark than it was ten years ago, what with seed rounds and series A sizes being so massive that salaries are a bit more reasonable at this stage too.