[don-code]

While I get and agree with the spirit of the answer, there's one major piece I take issue with:

> Well, what kinds of people work for 1% of a post-A startup? Average people (and below).

The people hired in the A round have no doubt been selected, _and_ self-selected a startup, for their ability to work at the mentioned 20x force multiplier. A 100-person company (let's call that late series B) is running, using the article's own numbers, at a 2-4x force multiplier, and a C-or-later startup with 200 or more people is running at perhaps even a 1.5x force multiplier.

Yes, there will be individuals who bring the force multiplier up, and individuals who bring the force multiplier down, but ultimately, the people in the organization are _above_ average if the organization's force multiplier is greater than one.

Also considering that founding engineers are sometimes some of the first to leave (especially as non-startup culture becomes entrenched), we can't as easily argue that the original 20x engineers are carrying the (0<n<1)x engineers.