The reality is, VCs are herd animals, and when the herd is spooked they make a lot of stupid decisions.
I've seen this more than once-- a later company was forced to sell for $10M, by the VCs, during another "oh the money spigot might be turning off!"
It is not an orthogonal concern-- how was I to know the VCs were going to screw us over? The return would have been dramatically better if that hadn't happened.
So the lesson learned is-- the right company to work for is one where the founders either don't take VC money or are very distrustful of VCs and only take it on favorable terms.
Nobody is entitled to venture capital. Plenty of people start companies without it.
From a founder view, we shouldn't be carrying the weight of the effective cost of the fact that the VCs can't pick companies worth a damn and want to make it up on us, if we happen to be good.
Nobody is entitled to venture capital, and starting a company without it is a good idea.
And VCs are not entitled to more equity & control than makes economic sense for the founders. That's what I'm opposing, but I don't think you disagree.
People don't sell equity to VCs because they've been snake-charmed by them. They do it because if you need 2MM+ for your company, they're the only realistic option. Ever talk to a bank about a line of credit against receivables? That's a fun conversation.
There's not a lot you can do as an employee about mismanagement that results in crappy outcomes. But it's an orthogonal concern to how equity is allocated. The commenter upthread was right when they said: part of your job as an employee is to pick the right company to work for.