I have a pet compensation idea: founder shares should be soft capped at some threshold (5m a head plus a quarter of anything above that?) with the part above the cap redistributed to employee stock holders such that mid sized exits (~100m), which are significantly more common are financially rewarding for more people in the company.
I don't know if this is practical, but as an early employee at a startup it's hard to not feel bitter about the massive disparity. Usually I try to avoid thinking about it.
So, why does risk justify a higher reward? The usual answer is that without a greater reward there is no reason to take a risk.
My conjecture is that reward above a certain threshold is not actually that meaningful of an incentive when starting a company. I would be interested in hearing founders' perspectives though.
I don't know if this is practical, but as an early employee at a startup it's hard to not feel bitter about the massive disparity. Usually I try to avoid thinking about it.