In my view, this complaint is just one step above an acquaintance who claims to have an amazing idea, and all you have to do as an engineer is make it into a reality and then we'll be super rich
No, this view is exactly the same as the folks that crawl out of the woodwork back in 2010 when they find out you write iOS apps: you build my idea, and we can split the profits. The fact that a startup throws some token amount of money at you doesn't change the formula.
Can't afford a million dollar CNC milling machine? Then you don't get to make widgets. Can't afford the going rate for a software developer? Then you don't get to make shitty throwaway apps for profit. The difference is that the milling machine vendors will tell you to pound sound when you whine that you can't afford it, whereas there's always a doey-eyed college grad ready to believe they're going to get rich writing the front-end for "Uber, only for cats".
No, this view is exactly the same as the folks that crawl out of the woodwork back in 2010 when they find out you write iOS apps: you build my idea, and we can split the profits. The fact that a startup throws some token amount of money at you doesn't change the formula.
Can't afford a million dollar CNC milling machine? Then you don't get to make widgets. Can't afford the going rate for a software developer? Then you don't get to make shitty throwaway apps for profit. The difference is that the milling machine vendors will tell you to pound sound when you whine that you can't afford it, whereas there's always a doey-eyed college grad ready to believe they're going to get rich writing the front-end for "Uber, only for cats".