This is the key. For founders who are not intrinsically fundable, an incredible amount of risk is removed between the time of initial founding and when a third-party assigns a value to the company. 1000x seems reasonable.

> The emploees just got a job.

Which is generally funded by VC money. In the formula of money -> jobs -> more money, the founder doesn't necessarily play such a meaningful role. If he hadn't taken VC money to create the company that contains the jobs, someone else would have.