Founders at YC have an expected return of ~$0 (most fail, moderate success only pays preferred shares and common gets $0, power law returns). https://jaredheyma

Founders at YC have an expected return of ~$0 (most fail, moderate success only pays preferred shares and common gets $0, power law returns). https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-life-and-death-of-y-combinator-startups-d58aa03421f0 https://jaredheyman.medium.com/on-the-life-and-death-of-y-co... Early employees often invest $ (cheap salary) but they don’t get preferential shares for their money - that’s a hell of an uneconomic trade. Sure, early employees get to do “Startup University”, however the strictly better deal is to become a founder and do “Startup University on Steroids” (even though expected return is $0 for founders). Ideally you can bootstrap a startup and retain 100% of ownership. A small pie you win, is better than a slice of big pie you failed to win. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35472121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35624331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35624331 Disclosure: millicorn co-founder, investigating startup market but a long long distance from the centre of the VC galaxy.