> Written by a VC trying to get engineers to join the startups he's invested in.

Actually for most of the piece he was pretty straightforward about making sure you get equity if you want to get paid upon company success.

What has changed is that genuine equity in startups isn't being offered as readily as it was ~15 years ago (and it is notable that the missed opportunity he describes is that far in the past).

For a VC, scraping off net innovation minus startup-wages is a win. It's a lose for the employees, of course.

I was a software engineer who learned to start a company right off the pages of the site you're looking at right now, Hacker News. It was here where I learned to start a startup.

I later worked for Y Combinator as a partner helping founders make products and services. The best ones made something that touches millions of people now.

While there is a lot of zero sum thinking in startupland and finance/capitalism in general, you have to remember that this is probably the most GROWTH mindset industry in the world. Where else can you, with just your hands and a laptop on the Internet, create something a billion people use?

I'm not saying that is the norm. But when it works, it's still remarkable.

And it can start with you, and everyone reading this.

> I was a software engineer who learned to start a company right off the pages of the site you're looking at right now, Hacker News. It was here where I learned to start a startup.

Keep in mind that if you look back on the things that made you excited to go into startups into 2006 or whenever, probably none of them are true anymore. E.g. the main reason people were excited back then is that there was a huge arbitrage opportunity to take every business that already existed as either brick-and-mortar or web 1.0, and reimagine it using AJAX and web 2.0 design language. In retrospect there were a bunch of other favorable macro trends coalescing at the same time also, but regardless none of these arbitrage opportunities exist any longer.

> Where else can you, with just your hands and a laptop on the Internet, create something a billion people use?

Serious question: how many software companies have something that a billion people have used?

It's a pretty special industry, for sure. But the odds of it happening are basically zero. I see how selling the dream makes for a good story for young and hungry startup founders to passionately change the world and (cynically) end up as a failed bet in someone else's portfolio.

But it's a bit disingenuous to make it sound like it's commonplace.

From what little I've seen of this guy, he really doesn't come off as a genuine person at all.

> Where else can you, with just your hands and a laptop on the Internet, create something a billion people use?

At the large tech companies, with a lot less risk and higher salaries.

> Where else can you, with just your hands and a laptop on the Internet, create something a billion people use?

At companies that already have a billion users?

No disrespect but I think what the people use the product for should be mentioned ... in addition to the number of people using the product. The world has a lot of problems right now. I know there’s some VC in those areas but, well, look at what we talk about.

Touch 20 lives as a teacher and enrich those individuals, or 20 million lives by helping them order groceries over the internet.

What’s a more democratic funding model to spread net innovation? Something like an employee owned company?

The technical term is a coop, like REI.

Workers cooperatives are too risky, the liability in case of default is not limited in all legislations that i'm aware. There are successful cooperatives in most countries but those are the exception not the norm.

It's always simpler, safer and more wise to incorporate.

Why can't the shares be given to employees? Why do the shares need to be owned by investors?

Sounds like this could be a potential avenue for innovation.