Fred seems to ignore that it costs less to create a viable company now. Hence the amount they need to raise from VCs is smaller. In the past I may have needed

Fred seems to ignore that it costs less to create a viable company now. Hence the amount they need to raise from VCs is smaller. In the past I may have needed $30m from VCs, now I need $5m. Additionally, as hapless notes, the cost of good engineers is the price of business. You could flip it the other way and say that VCs should pony up the $30m and founders give the engineer $1m signing bonus with market wages and no equity. But I think founders would be more squeamish about that then giving up equity that really has little cash value 90% of the time. BTW, I've never seen a non-founder engineer get 10%. Maybe it happens, but I think its still pretty rare.