In Cuba, there's a saying among citizens, "The state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work." In the Silicon Valley startup world, the employee equivalent might as well be "The company pretends to make us owners and we pretend to work like owners."

Just because many tech startups and their employees engage in this equity charade doesn't mean that it is or should be considered a defining characteristic of a "startup."

Ignoring the fact that this board is quite a good tech board, there are loads of reasons to work for a startup while not caring about startups.

A professional needs domain knowledge even if he's not particularly fussed with the whole run-your-own-company thing.

I work for a start up that's almost entirely bootstrapped. Certainly no VC or "professional" investment.

Different people have different opinions.