[non_sequitur]

As a former startup and FANG employee, I absolutely agree that working at a startup AS AN EMPLOYEE is not financially beneficial. The only ways to really make money as a non-founder employee at a startup is by being lucky enough to be at a Google/FB/Uber type exit for billions (not millions), or coming in as senior leadership (VP/CxO type role) AFTER the startup has gone through its growing pains, determined product market fit, and is seeing good traction. This is honestly as it should be - as an employee you are taking far less risk than founders (and to be fair, than most investors as well), so you shouldn't expect a massive windfall. As some people have commented, reason the cost benefit is out of whack is mainly due to recently inflated salaries (over the last few years) that came about as the result of FB/Google poaching wars, so this is a relatively recent development, and who knows how long it may last.