I don't know if the ratio of engineering led companies is growing, but with Twitter and Facebook going public instead of getting acquired, AirBnB, Dropbox and Github all getting huge, and Zuck's approach to big acquisitions so far (founders of Instragram, WhatsApp, and Oculus still running those companies), technical founders seem like they have more expectation of staying in control than before. I can't see any big tech co now bringing in a "grown up" a la early Apple or even Eric Schmidt at Google. And as an employee, it's super easy to find authentically tech-driven companies.
The "increasing" I mentioned had much more to do with a16z's surging influence and success as a VC.
"Knewton"
Never heard of Knewton, there are always going to bad examples. But you only work for one company at a time, and since there are so many great companies here, the bad apples don't matter as much. Bad/weak/deceptive companies are much more dangerous in smaller, thinner tech job markets (basically everywhere outside of SV/SF/NYC/Seattle/Boston).
And yes, the salaries in tech don't matter because tech workers without successful founder equity are still collateral damage between rich powerful companies and rich powerful property owners. I love my career intangibles here but I don't feel richer despite a big pay raise when I moved.
The "increasing" I mentioned had much more to do with a16z's surging influence and success as a VC.
"Knewton"
Never heard of Knewton, there are always going to bad examples. But you only work for one company at a time, and since there are so many great companies here, the bad apples don't matter as much. Bad/weak/deceptive companies are much more dangerous in smaller, thinner tech job markets (basically everywhere outside of SV/SF/NYC/Seattle/Boston).
And yes, the salaries in tech don't matter because tech workers without successful founder equity are still collateral damage between rich powerful companies and rich powerful property owners. I love my career intangibles here but I don't feel richer despite a big pay raise when I moved.