Nice people give up more equity than they should and trust the people with the money.

If you really want personal success, you need to show strength, not be 'nice'. Otherwise, the only person you will be making successful are the venture capitalists.

I've seen this time and time again: many venture capitalists feel that new founders haven't paid their 'dues' and don't deserve to have a share larger than essentially an employee.

There should be statistics on YC companies: What percentage of founders actually end up making a significant amount of any buyout.

I'm guessing it's a very small percentage...