> Founders generally have the same class of stock as employees (common stock), and so are in the same boat.

Not quite - Another extremely important point is ensuring that there isn't a hidden type of equity/option ("Series FF" or alike) sitting above you as an employee. In this situation founders are less aligned with you as an employee as they get the option to cash out rather than being diluted in follow-on rounds. This is a mechanism designed to align founders with investors by causing founders to shoot for the moon even through appealing exit offers, but has the side effect of allowing them to stop caring and not exit until it's too late (they've got theirs, after all).