The title of the article is mostly clickbait. Anyone who's lived in SV for a decade or so knows this well. Startups are a scam unless you are a founder. They are a meat grinder that runs on naive young new college grads who buy into the bullshit that their options are worth anything.
Founders cashing out early may be more of an "open secret" but it warrants more discussion. I don't find the title overly clickbait-y.
And a counterpoint to your perspective, I joined a startup a couple years out of college, had the most fun of my career, and the options were very much worth something. Working for a well-funded start-up is something I'd especially recommend early in your career when you can take more risk even if the equity doesn't always work out.
If anything, I'd discourage becoming a founder as a new grad more than SV typically discusses. I really appreciated taking time to build up my savings and get experience before taking a shot at that.
Even founders get shafted in later rounds where they are diluted out of their voting rights because they can't raise the capital to maintain their share. The only people not getting scammed regularly are the VC.
Founders have control of how things go, and have many ways to make money along the way (one such way documented by this article). How often do the first 2-5 engineers get any such chances?
> The only people not getting scammed regularly are the VC.
Not to want to sound like I'm standing up for Vulture Capital, but while it's not "getting scammed" as such - I suspect most VCs lose money on most startups they invest in. And not all VCs land enough 100x exits to make up for all those losses. (The "successful" VCs are the ones who make all the losses end up in pension fund balance sheets, while ensuring most of the profits land in their friends and their own pockets.)
