As a founder with multiple years of experience I can say that this post and a lot of other comments are coming from people who don't understand the life of a founder. It's not so much about risk. My peers earn 5-10x my salary. I'm paying my employees more than myself. I have to provide for 3 kids and we have a lot of debt on the house. I'm working day and night, 24/7. I don't like the phrase "taking money off the table". If I can sell some equity, this is none of your business. I started this company with my co-founders. Start your own company and try reaching Series A. It's almost impossible. Most people are not capable of getting there.
Aren't most early employees also working very long hours for 1/4th the pay and maybe 1% equity? A lot of them also have kids and debt. The life of a "founder" is not really that different from how most people in the world make ends meet. Heck most small businesses run on loans not VC money and are a ton more stressful.
To be frank that's your call to work 24/7 with 3 kids and not the business of your employees. They are free to negotiate how they please and we are free to take issue with certain founder behaviors. It's all business and it's a free world.
My point is that he is not working 24/7 as he says. He just have a business to run, that does not mean they work all the time, as they try the rest to convince us.
Neither working all the time should be rewarded with a status in which they can't be critised, but even if such reward shall exist, he aint working that much.
