I whole fully agree with the points you make but I want to point out that for engineers in Silicon Valley, it&#x27;s less dramatic to get laid off than you make it sound (I&#x27;ve been a part of a couple and I&#x27;ve had to lay off people as well).<p>The reality is in that most cases, you just change a tagline  here and there, recruiters call you, and you just go on and do the next great thing.<p>The only ones for whom this is a problem are probably the ones with a &quot;nice to have&quot; position and they will have a hard time finding a new job. This sucks, but this is, like you said, also the founder&#x27;s fault so it&#x27;s up to the founder to give them a nice severance pay, great recommendations and preferably even introductions to other companies.