The cool thing about being a founder is that you get to choose what to do with the equity in your company. So if Stephanie Hurlburt wants to offer a greater sha

The cool thing about being a founder is that you get to choose what to do with the equity in your company. So if Stephanie Hurlburt wants to offer a greater share to late employees for reasons of fairness or justice then more power to her. As a side benefit she may attract more talented, loyal employees. On the other hand there are probably more effective forms of philanthropy than giving your employees more money and equity than the market-clearing amount. In the end I think the talk about what people "deserve" is a red herring, on both sides. The way I'd look at it is that a business creates value, spends some of it to grow and keep the wheels turning, and the rest is surplus which the owners get to keep, spend or give away as they see fit.