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"But most of the value in this company came from two things: Richard Garfield creating Magic: The Gathering, and the employees. Not investors. It’s only appropriate that the distribution from the sale reflects that."

Hear hear. Investors say that founders and employees are what make startups. I wish the cap tables reflected that.

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so how do you propose that change?

This. Having been on both sides of the table (early employee and later a founder), I still struggle with what the right distribution would and should be. There are just so many factors to consider (pivots, investors, acquirers, risk) that it seems unlikely that a simple formula or blanket rule will guide people right. Probably case-by-case basis and a realization that information asymmetry + control in early stage companies leads to a slight, but correctable, favoring of founders/investors' interests.

Yeah, I don't know the right breakdown. I just know that your run-of-the-mill founding teams (not founders, the teams) are relatively shafted.

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