[UkrainianJew]

Don't blame the VCs, blame the public. Extra headcount absolutely increases your perceived credibility at an IPO, so they are growing this metric.

In defense of the public, if 10 devs out of 30 decide to leave and open a competing business, you're screwed. If 10 out of 1000 do that, nobody will notice.

[harikb]

Well, usually it is the case that “key 10 employees leaving” has the similar effect for both examples