[webwright]

"...but also naive."

That's silly. You need someone who values the startup experience in some way to balance out the salary hit. That's all. They may love small teams, might be seeking early experience, might want to build cred so they can raise money someday themselves, etc.

"the first employees work almost as hard as the founders, but receive 1/50 the ownership of the company."

The founders take considerably more risk working for free, raising money (time consuming for 99% of startups), and greater opportunity cost... Working 6-9 months or more on an unproven/unfunded startup is WAY RISKIER than joining a funded startup for a slightly reduced salary.

"In the age of the acqhire founders' risk is very small."

This is just plain wrong. What % of failing teams are acqhirable? Stanford grads will have no problems, but many/most teams are too small or too weak from a resume point of view to get a deal done. I've watched very solid teams fail to find a suitor a LOT (including MOST failing YC companies).