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Comment by bonobo886 | Hacker News Reader

Does your platform accept early employees as well? The first 10 employees are essentially founders and while they typically do not receive as much of the upside as a founder, they do bear the same risk. Allowing an early employee to diversify that risk would be a huge value add to a much wider potential network.

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It's something we're looking into. Would be a great market But for clarity, it's generally understood the employees do not bear the same risk as the founders, who contributed months/years of sweat equity as well as actual capital. Oh and risk of lawsuits.

An employee is paid day 1 and the risk beared does not surpass opportunity cost of a paid job at a successful startup vs a failed startup.

> who contributed months/years of sweat equity as well as actual capital

Very often not true in silicon valley. The only sweat equity most founders contributed was toiling through coffees and get-togethers on University Ave or SOMA for a few months until they got the seed money. Then they hire engineer #1 at 1/80th their own equity.

Founders at funded startups pay themselves.

During an acquihire, founders get executive roles, salaries, bonuses, and equity, while "non-founders" are just back to the grind.

The notion of "founder risk" in SV-style startups just doesn't exist like it did a generation or two ago.

oh I completely disagree, early employees are often not paid on day 1, and when they are paid, they still do bear a huge risk - often taking much lower salary than market for the opportunity of equity upside. The risk the early employee takes is often the same as the founder's, with less upside.

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