PS: Lots of people talk about the greed on Wall Street but it strikes me that the prospect of riches is causing greed to rear its ugly head in the startup scene

PS: Lots of people talk about the greed on Wall Street but it strikes me that the prospect of riches is causing greed to rear its ugly head in the startup scene too. What's more, people seem to turn a blind eye to it if the perpetrator has been successful. It's disappointing and I think it bodes ill for the entire sector. Very ill. We'll never know the real numbers, but it wouldn't surprise me if Mark Pincus has done $1+ billion worth of damage to the startup ecosystem. Fewer people will want to work for options/equity because of this story (which has caught on outside of our echo chamber) and the reputation of Silicon Valley's leadership has taken a hit. On the flip side, this is a great opportunity for Facebook and Google+ to repair their reputations. Drop Zynga. Denounce Pincus. I don't know about Facebook, but the vast majority of Google engineers who have to work with Zynga detest that company, so this move would also be beneficial for internal morale at many companies.