While VCs certainly played into this, I'd say founders merit the bulk of the blame. VCs are generally more amenable than founders to larger equity pools for employees. They're also much more enthusiastic about IPOs than founders, since they want liquidity events for their investments.
Thank you both. VCs and founders together have sucked up all the potential value of working for a startup, leaving only risk and below-market pay to employees. Until this changes, big name companies are not just safer but higher expected value.
