[momoro]

Apart from suggesting that entrepreneurs are "trying to hit the lottery," the article does not attempt to explain why founders and early employees are taking cash early.

The simplest explanation is that someone is willing to offer it to them. Many of the companies the author mentions had very high acquisition offers at some point. Founders and early employees could have taken the opportunity then to cash out, but they didn't.

My guess is that a lot of this is VCs compensating founders for not accepting acquisition offers and instead going for something bigger.

This is perhaps not an optimal situation, but it may be better than acquisitions in terms of creating longer-term value.

[zszabo]

That scenario is likely precluded by the conditions that come along with the investment capital. Nobody has ever gotten rich from signing blank checks. And while there may have been the occasional, foolish investor to do just that, everybody else in that position has already internalized the rules of what not to do if they want to have a hope of hanging on to some of their investment. If in life there is no such thing as a free lunch, then by extension, nobody in the position to be directly involved views VC as a free handout.