To quote someone from my hometown who is CTO of a silli-valley
ecommerce startup these days (not a buy.com-style Ponzi scheme, but
hardly what you'd call a sure thing in ordinary times), "the biggest
risk in a startup these days is not getting funded".
After that, the founders are set --- if the company doesn't work out
(pace the Whistle Communications story), the VCs will still sell it
for nine figures. So the founders are set.
Of course, at that point, says Franklin, there is still risk for the
second-tier employees --- the risk of not making enough money off the
stock run-up from *this particular job* to retire on, so they might
have to look for another one. Which they'll be able to find, of
course --- at least till the bubble bursts.
rst