A startup where founders end up &#60; 5% is going to be one with serious issues. Assuming a two-person startup where everyone starts at 50%, you'd have to go through three really low-value rounds (say taking in 1M on a 3M post-money valuation) to get the founders below 10%. Either you are burning cash way too fast or your idea just isn't taking off.<p>Regardless, everything is a tradeoff in a startup - if you ever get to that point, your employees are probably either staying because they are getting equivalent salary to a non-startup position and enjoying the environment or they are expecting a massive payoff (0.1% of a $500M exit is still $500k).<p>If you've made it through a few rounds of dilution as an employee and don't hold a lot of stock, you should probably be weighing whether it's even worth staying.