Why should you not be paid for your work? Founders often work for little or no salary. If you work 10 months and you get contractors hourly rates- sure you don

Why should you not be paid for your work? Founders often work for little or no salary. If you work 10 months and you get contractors hourly rates- sure you don't deserve stock. If you get market salary, you deserve a little bit of stock (Because you're taking risk). If you are making less than market you deserve stock commensurate with the income you gave up-- that is an investment with a dollar value as legitimate as any other investment in the company. One year cliffs are just completely unfair, and at this point, absurd. A 90 day cliff is fine by me, though I think it's still a bit intrinsically unfair, because the employee is always taking more risk than the company. But it's an acceptable compromise to me.