The idea that ground-floor employees know more than investors about a company is completely off the mark. Founders have the most information. Investors come next. Employees are dead last. They don't know shit about a company's prospects. Investors get to see the cap table, the compensation structure, and have the social access to vet the key players. Employees have none of that. If an engineer gets 0.25%, then the other 99.75% is completely opaque to him.
People tend toward overconfidence and therefore want to load up on their own performance risk. That's fine. If you're a +3 or +4 sigma intellect, you probably are smarter than people will perceive you as being. That's one key informational advantage you have over the rest of the world: you're smart, they don't realize it. But... that means nothing once you're subsumed into a 50-person "startup", whose macroscopic performance is not really changed by taking on a +4 sigma guy at some dippy subordinate level.
VC-istan investors are the ultimate insider traders. They know everyone, including the acquirers who make markets for their wares. As an employee, you don't. In VC-istan, you don't know shit and the earlier you learn this, the better.
People tend toward overconfidence and therefore want to load up on their own performance risk. That's fine. If you're a +3 or +4 sigma intellect, you probably are smarter than people will perceive you as being. That's one key informational advantage you have over the rest of the world: you're smart, they don't realize it. But... that means nothing once you're subsumed into a 50-person "startup", whose macroscopic performance is not really changed by taking on a +4 sigma guy at some dippy subordinate level.
VC-istan investors are the ultimate insider traders. They know everyone, including the acquirers who make markets for their wares. As an employee, you don't. In VC-istan, you don't know shit and the earlier you learn this, the better.