The Founder, on the other hand, granted himself accelerated vesting. His shares in DateDate were awarded the day the company was acquired. He believed in the primacy of the inventor. No one else was entitled to anything. Not even me, a friend. Noma informed me that accelerated vesting was common. Usually founders grant the same rights to their team, especially if the team is small. It had happened to her at a couple of other startups; her promised equity had been converted into a decent nest egg, allowing her to drift from startup to startup without worrying about a consistent source of income. I’d assumed she had family money, like so many other Stanford people I knew, and admired her for earning her own way. Of course, she’d been lucky to work for founders who looked out for their employees. The Founder would not be leaving me with a nest egg. I knew better than to compare, but my earnings were a thousand times less than what he would receive. I felt cheated, robbed of the potential to earn more, and also dismayed by these feelings of capitalist greed rising within me.