[rhc2104]

You don't have to be one of the 10 first employees at Facebook to get paid: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072204/Facebook-IPO...

As a general rule of thumb, if a company is willing to do the extremely expensive action of acquihiring, they are willing to part a pretty high amount of equity of employees. Not acquihire-high of course, but a pretty good amount.

Of course, it could be argued that they aren't "startups" by that point, but "growth companies."

[jmcgough]

You linked to the Daily Mail, which is a British tabloid and not really known for its factual accuracy.