It has worked, perhaps not for long, but outweighted sums of cash to play with a nice side project or work on an actual "at scale" thing whilst you vest some sh

It has worked, perhaps not for long, but outweighted sums of cash to play with a nice side project or work on an actual "at scale" thing whilst you vest some shares probably appeals to a lot more smart people than we might imagine. Salaries are also deductible, so they get the talent in their pool, off the market, adding a small % of value, whilst also being able to offset taxes on record profits. It's a pretty nice win-win for them.