3 ms·

I always thought that part of the reason early employees got more equity was not only because of the risks involved, but also because early employees usually ha

by saganus 11y ago

I always thought that part of the reason early employees got more equity was not only because of the risks involved, but also because early employees usually have to do all sorts of things aside from their regular duties. Not saying this is always the case, but personally I always thought this was part of the reward given. For example, it's not the same to be a developer that, even though might contribute a lot, didn't have to write the framework from scratch when there are so many unknowns, there a lot of tougher decisions, when things are not as clear and straight forward, responsibility is greater, etc. Of course this depends a lot on the particular startup, but I've seen employees hired to do say, design, end up having to do sales as well, even if they don't enjoy it or they don't have the skill for it.

ryandrake 11y ago
No, for sure. Early employees should definitely be rewarded for all those things. But it would be nice if there were a better way to structure equity for later employees so that high performing ones can be motivated proportionately. It must be pretty demotivating to spend your time at a small company busting ass to make the stock go from $20 to $21 while you look across the office at the early birds whose only current job description appears to be "sit around and cash out my truckload of $0.01 stocks at $20 every two weeks".
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > It must be pretty demotivating to spend your time at a small company busting ass to make the stock go from $20 to $21 while you look across the office at the early birds whose only current job description appears to be "sit around and cash out my truckload of $0.01 stocks at $20 every two weeks". It probably would be; if an early employee really is contributing so little, they probably ought to be terminated (if they've got stock from early options, they can keep selling it off for as long as they want, whether or not they are hanging around the office demotivating other people.)

by saganus 11y ago

ryandrake 11y ago

No, for sure. Early employees should definitely be rewarded for all those things. But it would be nice if there were a better way to structure equity for later employees so that high performing ones can be motivated proportionately. It must be pretty demotivating to spend your time at a small company busting ass to make the stock go from $20 to $21 while you look across the office at the early birds whose only current job description appears to be "sit around and cash out my truckload of $0.01 stocks at $20 every two weeks".

dragonwriter 11y ago
> It must be pretty demotivating to spend your time at a small company busting ass to make the stock go from $20 to $21 while you look across the office at the early birds whose only current job description appears to be "sit around and cash out my truckload of $0.01 stocks at $20 every two weeks". It probably would be; if an early employee really is contributing so little, they probably ought to be terminated (if they've got stock from early options, they can keep selling it off for as long as they want, whether or not they are hanging around the office demotivating other people.)