I dislike these sorts of posts. While the likes of 37signals are very quick to point out that there are lots of benefits you can have as a founder of a small company that never "exits", they forget about the employees.

Sure, if I am founder I can sell back some of my stock to the VCs/take some money out as a "bonus"/dividends, but what about the employees who have (often) taken serious risks and worked long hours for sub-market pay?