> Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith are worth more than $100 million combined after turning the cloud software firm they started in a Berkeley, Calif., garage into Box Inc., with 1,200 employees and expected revenue of $285 million this year. ...But getting there took 10 years.<p>This illustrates very well the disparity between founder and non-founder equity. It's considered a negative that Levie and Smith got <i>only</i> $100 million combined. They're not Sergey-rich, but it's still fuck-you retire-early start-a-foundation become-an-investor money for each of them.<p>Meanwhile, given that the sum of non-founder equity (i.e., all employees combined) typically adds up to less than the founders', you've got at most $100 million to spread over 1200 employees. Employee number 1 might have a couple million dollars bonus from his 10 years, but it'll go down quickly from there for everyone after the first few. Where's the WSJ article on them, and the thousands of others who are never written about when silicon valley companies go public? The ones who joined a company early, or when it was in the red, or under pressure from all sides, and helped it grow and succeed... and they walk away still not being able to afford a house in Mountain View, while their founders pick out colors for their Ferraris?