I have. Last company I was the first the join, was acquired by a bigger startup, and left at 120 employees. I&#x27;m currently starting my own company.<p>Maybe idea is the wrong word. Vision? Strategic plan? Narrowly-focused execution with an emphasis on coherence? Facebook and MySpace are the same idea, but vastly different companies, no matter when you compared them. Communicating all the things you do differently isn&#x27;t something that you can do with a website or a quick chat with a single employee. That structure of shared ideas is important, and in small companies, it&#x27;s basically all that exists. Comparatively, the code and customer base replaceable.<p>And anybody can leave, at any time, in the same way that I&#x27;m allowed to fire anybody or sell the company with a provision to devalue the equity. There&#x27;s a million ways for us all to screw each other. There needs to be trust in the company, because if you&#x27;re just after short term cash, there&#x27;s way better ways to find it than startups.