[ap22213]

Note that the situation has evolved over the last 20 years. During the first tech wave, general employees actually made decent money when the company got sold. I know a bunch of people that walked into early retirement in the 90s.

But, in that first wave, the founders were more likely to be the ones who built the original product. Since then, there's been a dramatic shift from the inventor-run tech company to the financier-run or salesperson-run tech company. In this second generation company, there's considerably less leverage for a non-sales or non-finance employee. I've known a couple people who've gotten rich during the second wave, but none were from the creative team.