I'm working at a startup right now, and I think this is pretty accurate.
The freedom is nice (no hours, nobody telling exactly what to do every day). However, I will NEVER be able to have the passion for the product as I would if it was my own startup, this is just work to me.
The rewards game for first employees is perplexing. You have an order of magnitude less incentive than the founders who birthed the thing. Arguably, that's taken care of: you're on a real salary while they're making peanuts. You're also capable of moving to a new job tomorrow, while this is the founders' life.
But when an acquihire with retention bonus is almost equivalent in net payout to you as a successful acquisition or IPO might be, it is difficult to be super-invested instead of merely daydreaming and working toward starting your own company. At best you can hope to be flush from a quick and healthy payout, which might pay off student loans or capitalize the first steps of your own risky venture.
Is the game of Silicon Valley just to structurally encourage everyone to eventually devote their time to fully creating their own pet technologies and products? Who works for anyone else except for fools and transients?
I haven't had a chance to read the article yet, as venturebeat seems to be down, however to your last point -
I feel like to some extent, yes - and I sort of doubt it's a good thing. One of the founders where I work actually asked me why I hadn't tried to start my own company. In truth, there's a myriad of reasons. What stuck in my head though, is that - if anyone with a modicum of talent is viewed as slacking for not starting their own thing, then who are we left with to actually work for and help develop the companies that DO get started?
Given this current culture (at least, how I perceive it) - I feel as if it's leading to many companies that, though they may end up getting bought and putting a nice chunk of change in its founders' and investors' pockets, they're really not making important break throughs, and will eventually be forgotten. Whereas, if getting a company off the ground were substantially harder, the ones that did make it off the ground floor would need more people, be working on bigger problems, and ultimately more progress would be made.
The freedom is nice (no hours, nobody telling exactly what to do every day). However, I will NEVER be able to have the passion for the product as I would if it was my own startup, this is just work to me.