RSUs for early employees makes a lot of sense. The problem is that by granting RSUs, you're effectively forcing the employee to accept taxable property as it ve

RSUs for early employees makes a lot of sense. The problem is that by granting RSUs, you're effectively forcing the employee to accept taxable property as it vests. For folks that want to early exercise anyway, that's fine (more efficient than paying the company for the options and dealing with the AMT stuff!). But as you get even a little bit down the line, and your company valuation goes up, that's real liability for the employee. Said another way, not everyone early exercises their options, so some folks would prefer not to definitely owe taxes. A lot of these later stage companies (like say Dropbox, and famously Facebook pre-IPO), start blending towards RSUs for exactly this reason though. Shares are nicer than options, but you need to be cognizant of the tax implications (I believe, but haven't experienced it, that even Dropbox does RSU withholding, so employees aren't left figuring out how to pay the IRS thousands of dollars for their illiquid shares). Disclaimer: I'm not a tax professional, lawyer, accountant, or any of that (like you, I just wish at least early employees would get RSUs).