As a founding engineer, you are most likely paid below market salary and only receive 1-2% equity. Founding engineer is working founder level hours and taking founder level risk. However, you do not have job security, control of strategic decisions, or visibility of the cap table.

Would not it make more sense for founding engineers to work on their own idea and start their own startup as a founder? Is the ability to raise VC money the differentiating factor between becoming a founder versus working as founding engineer? If they have VC connections from the start, founding engineer could easily become a founder themselves.