[webwright]

"...who are putting their careers on the line working for a no name company that may fail any day"

If you're talking about software engineers, I don't think there's much risk there other than opportunity cost. When a company folds, other startups generally swarm pretty quickly to snatch up the team.

Chris is absolutely right that there are two types of people in the world, but isn't necessarily saying there aren't THREE types of people in the world. Or a whole spectrum. But his point stands-- a founder suffers through everything this post describes PLUS working for free/debt for months.

[pvodsevhcm]

Yes, that's what I recall happening in the valley from 2001-2004. Other startups just swarmed over the hundreds of thousands of developers out of work.

[enjo]

That extended far beyond early stage employees. Hundreds of thousands of folks (nationwide) lost their jobs at established companies in the wake of that mess. I don't see how early stage employees faced any greater risk.

[pvodsevhcm]

> Hundreds of thousands of folks (nationwide) lost their jobs at established companies in the wake of that mess.

False. If you went to the east coast, people were largely unaffected by the dot-bomb in the valley. The most significant impact was seeing various stock market indexes drop, which hit people in the pocketbook, but it did not result in layoffs.