It used to be that early employees who took the risk along with the founders shared the outcome. That is no longer the case, with founders leaving companies and employees in acquihires that license the technology and abandon the rest.
Employees are starting to learn that a ‘mission’ is just a recruiting pitch. There are still some founders who would rather go slower than abandon the people who believed in them — finding them has never mattered more.
Read the full blog post on Balancing Act.
Sources:
• TLDR. (2026, February 2). TLDR Newsletter. https://a.tldrnewsletter.com/web-version?ep=1&lc=f5cb7e17-003d-11ed-9258-0241b9615763&p=f506196a-0010-11f1-8219-038103267f56&pt=campaign&t=1770033693&s=b1ae5ccaa098e95025d02e286faf4b0178ff0f03d200dff5e776f132678924d7
• Kothari, N. (2026, January 30). Loyalty is dead in tech. Balancing Act. https://writing.nikunjk.com/p/loyalty-is-dead-in-tech
