The increase and acquisitions and how negatively they tend to impact employees has also really reduced the expected value of startups. I know dozens of engineers who were at middlingly successful startups and the story is always the same - founders, VCs, and a few key employees get paid and everyone else is shafted.

This has changed how I do the math when founders approach me as an early engineering higher. I make us game out different valuations and how likely they seem and what my potential payout is - I let them know that unless they can offer some contractual protection for my upside during a buyout I have to treat that scenario as one where I get nothing. So far not a single founder has been willing to entertain that sort of agreement.