[ping_pong]

Founders made 8 figures, most employees including early ones got less than 100k. Back during the dotcom boom, options were distributed a lot more generously. At the first company I joined, the admin assistant made enough from the IPO to buy a vineyard and retire.

[jedberg]

This has been my observation as well. VCs have gotten really good at extracting maximum value (and leaving a bit for the founders since those are the people they are negotiating with). Sometimes even the founders don't realize how their employees are getting diluted because the deals are so complex.

Back in the 90s they weren't as good at it, so everyone made retirement money. But now you're not making retirement money unless you happen to work for the next Facebook or AirBnb. Basically unless the founders are making 10 figure exits, you aren't making much at all.

[akomtu]

The 1:100 proportion sounds about right. A way to fix that would be to tie an employee's comp to the founders comp, e.g. the first employee always gets 25% of the founder's payout. I'd be really curious to see how typical founders evade such a proposal.

[SiliconAlley]

So everybody is in it for the money? Noted.

[spamizbad]

I would hope so. The expectation is to build a multi-billion dollar company. There are more interesting products and ideas to explore out there, but they won't make you rich.

Which is why I'm super-skeptical of anyone who says they're at some rocketship growth startup because they just want to make "great products". Unless their definition of a "great product" is one that makes a lot of money or is popular, they either aren't being honest or don't fully understand their own motivations.

[ping_pong]

Oh, are we supposed to be in it to "make the world a better place"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso

[boleary-gl]

That’s typically how a job works…