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I think all this is OK. The problem is when it's not transparent. Then you have early employees (even some naive founders) with a lot of stock/options who ass

I think all this is OK. The problem is when it's not transparent. Then you have early employees (even some naive founders) with a lot of stock/options who assume they are going to be compensated with the exit. Then it's quite a shock when they aren't. As a veteran of such things (both successful and unsuccessful exits), I make sure to educate my fellow engineers on how these things work and what their realistic expectations should be.

ytx 3y ago
Right, I suspect many people (including me) wouldn't even know what terms look up to research such things. I get a lot of my knowledge by osmosis from the hn comment section, for better or worse :P
dukeyukey 3y ago
When founders get hit by this, well, it is their job to understand what they're getting into. They're the ones who can hire lawyers to tell them what it means, who cana ccept or turn down investment, and pivot the company where it should go. For the employees who get stock options though, it's a despicable move that should get you blacklisted. If you fuck over early employees like that, I will avoid you for life, and tell everyone else to do so too.