A key paragraph in the article kindly submitted here is this paragraph about promised shares of stock in a company: "Moreover, tech startups typically attract t

A key paragraph in the article kindly submitted here is this paragraph about promised shares of stock in a company: "Moreover, tech startups typically attract talent by offering shares. Employees work like dogs in return for supposedly making a fortune when the firm goes public. However, such firms often use multiple classes of shares that preserve the biggest gains for insiders, leaving the employees with common stock that can easily lose value. In particular, startups have taken to offering later-stage investors guarantees that they will get their money back, if either a subsequent funding round or an eventual initial public offering (IPO) values their shares at a lower price than they are paying. When firms have to pay out on such guarantees, they generally do so by issuing extra shares, which dilute other common shareholders such as their staff." That's what makes the venture-capital-funded tech industry different: it looks like it offers opportunities to make serious money through appreciation of shares in the company, but all too often that doesn't work out. It was interesting to see, in another part of the article, the suggestion that knowing what a company's goals are in relation to one's work can make one's work more satisfying. That makes sense.