I didn't mean to inject my bitch-fest into this thread, my point is that the idea that being a founder is going to lead to a job where you have control and independence, can run into a big road block as soon as you take VC money. It's important to get stuff clear with your co-founders before you sign anything.

What you call a "bitch-fest" I call incredibly valuable data rarely seen here. Since most HN readers will never become part of YN, your experience is extremely apropos.

You should seriously consider writing a "Don't Let This Happen to You" piece (a la Philip Greenspun) and posting it here to save others from the same fate. Change the names (including your own) if you like. A post like that could be the single most important thing some hackers ever take away from here.

To paraphrase my lawyer, sometimes companies can be very creative about what the standard "Proprietary Inventions and Information" agreement covers. And any advice I give can basically be summed up as "get your own lawyer early."

No, we totally appreciate your input here, and I think that you'll find that being Digg's first technical guy carries a lot of street cred. Your insight is appreciated. And, even though things may not be looking great for you now, I wouldn't be suprised if you did better for yourself the second time around.

Although on a cautionary note, I'd be careful what I post here, because it does tend to get picked up. Comments I've made got picked up by ValleyWag, and that's almost never a good thing.

Got it. Good luck with your startup. I read Jessica Livingston's 'Founders at work' and the story of many co-founders is very similar to what you said.

"Isn't equity a big deal? I was employee #2 in a just funded startup. I ended up busting my ass the whole time only to realize that my equity was a fraction of what the founders took in."

To be fair if you were an employee, i.e. you got paid well I assume? there was less risk on your part relative to the founders. So your equity should be a fraction of what the founders took in. Why would it be otherwise?

Yes, I was paid very well. I loved the team. And I am now at peace with the equity part as well. They earned every single bit of their equity for the risk they took.

I was responding to ojbyrne's comments that being a founder is not all hunky-dory since (s)he ended up in the same spot. I suggested at least (s)he got better equity being a founder and that is a big deal.

And I still think for a risk/reward outlook, either being a founder or playing it safe until after Series B are the two extremes and are both high in the value / risk ratio.

I'd probably agree with "paid very well", "loved the team", "earned every bit", etc. The problem was that the job went from something I loved (small team, a variety of responsibilities, lots of opportunity) to something I didn't like at all (head-down coding). Which is all I really wanted to point out.