[chrisco255]

That's the risk you take in software in general. What stopped Instagram from copying Snapchat? Nothing. Micrsoft used to snuff out competitors in the office suite space all the time. MSN copied AIM. IE copied Netscape. It happens. You either work with founders you can trust or you don't.

[ameister14]

Sure, but that doesn't mean that if you hire engineers who then screw you over you're a bad person and they're heroes.

[kamaal]

For better or worse that is how it works.

And its not just with start ups. People who are more closer to work, generally tend to maximize returns for themselves above those are who are away from it.

This is true even in Big companies. Most product managers I know barely contribute anything to the product, most of the times its the engineers doing all the work and the product manager is just there to provide the validation 'This looks fine to me'.

There is a good reason why carpenters, plumbers, drivers, <skilled_worker> generally do better on the longer run than the supervisor ever does.