Agreed. This shift hasn't taken root yet and I think you're going to see a lot of startups that succeed caught on to the fact that the extra early-stage equity they can retain (due to less onerous funding) is best given to the first N employees than held onto by the founders. Taking the equity the VC's normally would have gotten and giving it to your first several employees now opens the door for you to hire people who are at the top of their field as your first employees, if they are not totally risk averse. I think it might turn out we end up inventing a new term for these "post founder, pre employee" folks since they are going to be a big differentiators for this generation of startups.
There are definitely stages in the life of a startup that are pre-salary but less risky than ground zero. For example, some initial market validation, users, or even paying customers could be there. Or, there could have been a significant engineering breakthrough or two. Or, simply the fact that the startup has survived its first pivot is evidence the team has staying power.
especially if you've had an ethical bypass and are willing to go Zynga on them later. Engineers are a lot easier to push around than angels (or VC's) are.
