The article says "early stage startups need to compete". I agree with this. I haven't really seen much movement in that direction though. So many startups try to get early employees to shoulder all risk themselves with no hope of reward, bogus equity deals, no benefits, etc. You hear about these VCs buying substantial slices of ownership for $12,000 or $6,000 or other such trivial amounts less than their weekly cost of first class airfare, which makes it impossible to offer real salaries to new hires.<p>Very little action going on that indicates there is a true understanding in the start up community that top talent is needed to invent top products that draw customers.<p>Heck, there was recently an announcement here from some company that was telling startups they didn't even need to have developers, they had plugin disposable cog developers in india that could do whatever was needed remotely, as if killer product development was a solved problem now handled by line workers. Obviously these nameless overseas developers won't be getting equity.<p>Really has seemed like amateur hour in the startup community for some time. So little activity is consistent with a desire to build solid companies with good products that are sustainable. Instead, more and more VC funds are run by guys with little successful business experience, who seem mostly interested in living the high life at the expense of the investors they are fleecing.