> She's an integral part of my success and doing my job every day. There were lots of candidates for her job but we chose her. And I'll be ecstatic if one day s

> She's an integral part of my success and doing my job every day. There were lots of candidates for her job but we chose her. And I'll be ecstatic if one day she sees upside from having taken the job working for me. So why don't you give her that upside? As a business owner you can pay her whatever you would like her to see earn one day. Just do it, there's no inherent reason why equity has to be given away. Of course if you prefer to pay her a promise of maybe one day cashing out, but equally not cashing out at all, then I wonder if you really value her contributions today as much as you make it sound here. Honestly, people can run amazing companies and treat their employees really really well from day one, not one day when they win the lottery. EDIT: BTW congrats on the IPO!