That's still just as bad, wow! This could be phrased much less offensively as something along the lines of "Your employees will notice and you may have to offer

That's still just as bad, wow! This could be phrased much less offensively as something along the lines of "Your employees will notice and you may have to offer them compensation for their lost upside." This assumes you have hired intelligent employees and cautions against the actual issue (not having your outstanding-options ducks in a row before closing the Series A) rather than the consequence (employees find out and you have to pay them more). The current phrasing still assumes only some of your employees will notice, and couching the issue as one of "morale" pointlessly obfuscates the fact that these employees would be losing upside they (presumably) agreed to work for you with the understanding they would get.