[Hermitian909]

The other option, of course, is to give employees more upside. I've had a few founders offer me founding engineer at a salary equivalent to theirs with 1% of the upside in an IPO scenario despite very similar risk profiles (not to mention what would happen in acquisition).

Actually it's probably worth mentioning acquisitions as one of the things that's severely reduced the appeal of working for a startup. After failure the most common exit for a startup is acquisition. As an employee this almost always means you get zeroed out and founders regularly walk with 7 figure pay days (or higher). I know they exist but I've yet to meet an employee who made any money in an acquisition for under a billion.

No one will offer you any sort of protection for this scenario, why bother?