POUND SAND… That’s what the junior startup employee would say. If they only knew…
As a serial startup exec/entrepreneur. I know the pitch (guilty), it goes something like this:
“Come on, team… Today you’ll do things that others will not do so that tomorrow you will live the way others will not live!!! What color will your Ferrari be? Island or ski home?
Used during crunch times of sales pitches, investor meetings, – or all the time.
The problem is with traditional cap tables and option incentive plans; the exits aren’t there at scale to trickle down below key employees in a meaningful way.
Most employees don’t understand cap tables, liquidation preferences, debt over equity, preferred vs. common, even vesting, or triggers. One startup I was a part of made people who worked for me > Millionaires. That’s one out of ten +.
The fact of the matter is if you were honest with your junior developer working 80 hours a week, round the clock that if we sell for $100 million in 5 years, they’ll receive a check for $17,000.
They’d tell you … GSY!
So let’s re-invent it.
