As employees near retirement, or have plenty of savings, or have strong opinions (or all three), they become easy targets: cut them out of the loop and make the

As employees near retirement, or have plenty of savings, or have strong opinions (or all three), they become easy targets: cut them out of the loop and make their lives difficult, and then they'll leave. Presto! new opportunities for you and your friends. Is there a defense? Not really. Somehow they'd have to convince most that they'd be there long enough to make crossing you a bad idea, and connected enough to know when you're being crossed. The history of Silicon Valley is less about the founding innovation, and more about how others manage to capture it.