4 ms·
To employees options are a free lottery ticket. You could work your ass off and make your company a huge success, but due to vesting and liquidity preference w
by andrewvc 11y ago
To employees options are a free lottery ticket.
You could work your ass off and make your company a huge success, but due to vesting and liquidity preference wind up with nothing. Unless you have enough skin in the game (read, you are an investor or founder), your options mostly useless.
- tptacek 11y agoA company whose equity outcome is wiped out by liquidation preferences is practically by definition not a "huge success".
- andrewvc 11y agoThat is not actually the case! You found a company with idea X, which turns out to be a terrible idea that takes 3 rounds of funding to find out how terrible it indeed is. You pivot to idea XY, work your ass off and find traction! Take another round to grow and exit for 100mm. You're rich! All thanks to your great work! Too bad you were diluted to all hell in the previous rounds and you're not actually rich. My point is that the company's success is defined in terms of current revenue and future prospects. Your personal definition of success in determined by the delta in the value of your stock options between when they were issued and the present.