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Many founders invest their savings into the business at inception. They certainly invest a massive cut in salary (usually all the way down to $0). The opportuni
by swombat 16y ago
Many founders invest their savings into the business at inception. They certainly invest a massive cut in salary (usually all the way down to $0). The opportunity cost for founders is much more than a "25% haircut".
Imho, for most, the financial risk and opportunity cost is why they deserve those shares, if you're going to do calculations.
But, even more fundamentally, the founders deserve the shares because if they didn't start the business the business wouldn't exist. Without the founders, the discussion is moot.
- cellis 16y agoHN is seriously degraded if this is being downvoted. If this doesn't ring true, then you haven't been a startup founder.
- georgieporgie 16y agoBut HN is so VC-obsessed, it seems like independent, $0-income startups are the edge cases here.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- stonemetal 16y agoHow so? OP said employees at a startup get 25% lower salary than they would at someplace more mainstream. He didn't mention founders making 25% less than they would at a day job.
- NickPollard 16y agoWho do you think puts up the money that pays the employees?