Dude, lets be real here. You join early, take a risk, get a solid slice, maybe build your own thing later. That era produced a lot of good outcomes for smart pe

Dude, lets be real here. You join early, take a risk, get a solid slice, maybe build your own thing later. That era produced a lot of good outcomes for smart people willing to bet on themselves. That’s not the game anymore. Today, most of these companies lock the cap table before engineers show up. The infrastructure costs are massive—bootstrapping isn’t just hard, it’s often structurally impossible in AI unless you’re rich or already plugged in. The story everyone’s still selling—about meritocracy, about “just take the risk”—doesn’t match the way power and ownership actually work now. The people building the models aren’t getting meaningful equity. The platforms are licensing them behind closed doors. The upside is flowing to founders, corporate partners, and late-stage investors who shape the game long before most people touch it. And yeah, a few still break out. But the vast majority? They’re just very clever labor with a better kitchen. If you made it work before, that’s awesome. But let’s not pretend the system hasn’t shifted underneath the next generation.