In particular: it's clear from the context they're talking about non-founder employees; simply by the principle of charity you should assume the author --- who sat on the board of a pretty successful VC-funded company --- knows that founder employees are often on boards.
Mostly though, this "who was first" discussion is an attractive nuisance for us to bicker on about, and we're asked by the guidelines not to take the bait on that stuff.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
In particular: it's clear from the context they're talking about non-founder employees; simply by the principle of charity you should assume the author --- who sat on the board of a pretty successful VC-funded company --- knows that founder employees are often on boards.
Mostly though, this "who was first" discussion is an attractive nuisance for us to bicker on about, and we're asked by the guidelines not to take the bait on that stuff.