this is a contorted, misguided, wrong argument. as evidenced by the lack of a proposed solution. i could refute his arguments point-by-point but i'll just high

this is a contorted, misguided, wrong argument. as evidenced by the lack of a proposed solution. i could refute his arguments point-by-point but i'll just highlight a few. 1. in a couple of places, he notes that "employees" put in as much hard work as "founders" but don't receive equivalent compensation. this is an absurd comparison. the amount of hard work is irrelevant, it's the value you bring to the table. part of that value is via hard work, and part is via the unique (or not) skill set. the unskilled janitor or maintenance man might put in hard work, but is an easily replaceable skill. if in fact you think you are bringing as much value as the founders, but aren't getting rewarded, the solution is very, very, very simple: become a founder. 2. So while the VCs gain the upside from keeping a startup private, employees get the downside. What? Given the very well known, no excuses for not knowing this, fact that the large majority of startups fail, VCs take 100% of the risk, by virtue of laying out 100% of the capital. The employees get a salary during this time (no "downside"), and any upside is free money to them. Now this isn't a perfect rebuttal, but steve's argument is also lacking in nuance so i'll leave it there. 3. VCs have moved the liquidity goal posts _but_ haven't moved the vesting goal posts. Is he suggesting the vesting schedule needs to be longer?? To match liquidity??? this is nonsensical. the overriding problem, he suggests, is this new "growth capital" phase. i don't agree this has made the stock option deal "bad". yes, it changes the nature of it, but not to as negative a degree as he implies. if he wants companies to IPO earlier, well what happens is that your 1 basis point of options will be worth 10x less than if you stick it out. it's like people complaining about dilution: dilution isn't a problem ... your net cash value increases with each round. it's not really feasible to have the hoi polloi be able to liquidate options at each round.