Of course, you want all your stock gains to fall under long term capital gain. Google already has the market price in, but all startups don't. If you make 200k

Of course, you want all your stock gains to fall under long term capital gain. Google already has the market price in, but all startups don't. If you make 200k a year for 10 years, vs get no salary for a startup for 10 years and then its sold out for 2 million dollars, they are completely different tax conditions. Im not an expert or have been through this, but if you sell 2 million dollars at 15% long term rate vs the 35~% + medicare of salary, the difference will be huge.