this is funny - you're saying you've never done it, and asking why everyone else doesn't do the same thing as you, but you've been a founder, right? So you probably hired people? Did you pay them market comp, or do you have a story about why it was justified not to? Was it their fault for accepting the offer you made them? Were they somehow signaling their own inferiority by applying and/or accepting your offer, implying that they couldn't get full market comp? Were they trading something intangible like "autonomy" and "impact" for comp-dollars?