You need to make sure that the founders are good people. Most of them are not.<p>I can relate to the one year cliff and the economic incentive behind terminating employees - Thankfully, the founders I worked for in my last startup were fundamentally good people. I wouldn&#x27;t hesitate to work with them again.<p>As an employee, you are always at the mercy of the founders - So you&#x27;d better study them carefully. I think the best sign of a good founder is that they&#x27;re usually easy to talk to - They&#x27;re genuine people and they always talk to you on the same level as any two human beings would, not as a mere employee.<p>Also, good founders are humble; I had no idea that the CEO of my previous startup could read and write code until about 6 months in - He never said so. I knew the founders were smart when I joined, but I didn&#x27;t appreciate the full extent until about one year later.