HN user
s23h.com
Definitely agreed that there exist thousands of different ways to not pay employees... but they don't have good incentive to cut them out.
Purely from a social contract lens, why would founders actively seek out ways to cut out their employees from a (potentially life changing) exit.
Yes I think you are right here. The purchase price is high enough for all parties to be get return on their shares, and whilst there will be a waterfall for who gets paid first, I doubt many people will be unhappy with this deal.
Unlike Windsurf... who's 2nd employee only got 1% of what their shares were worth (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44673296)