Now that's a bit extreme. A lot of engineers would consider the company as nothing but "It's just a job as I'll jump ship as soon as some better gig comes along

Now that's a bit extreme. A lot of engineers would consider the company as nothing but "It's just a job as I'll jump ship as soon as some better gig comes along", and that's totally fair . You hire someone because there's work to be done. You would develop professional, working and possibly personal relationships as you work together for some time. That has nothing to do with the common hiring practices. For the records, I always asked for the cap table when negotiating an offer and I understand that founders are reluctant to share.