So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
You should be giving out a lot of equity to your employees.
Every company, regardless of size, is competing for the same pool of talent, which is why top recruiters can even command equity for finding key hires. Internships give startups a chance to hire the best and brightest from our universities at a fraction of the cost that these same minds will command when they receive their degrees.
Keep salaries low and equity high. Keep the organization as flat as you can.
In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.
In our works at Bethlehem and San Francisco, and all over the United States, I adopted this system: I pay the managers practically no salary. I make them partners in the business, only I don't let them share in the efforts of any other man.
Tech executives have historically been owners of significant portions of their companies' stock so there is a propensity for them to diversify as a rule.
We've seen a lot of data at YC now, and the most successful companies and the ones where the investors do the best... end up giving a lot of stock out to employees- year after year after year.
Benefits are rarely made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, where companies must report the pay and options that their five highest-paid executives receive.
I first learned of the value of employee stock ownership plans while representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, home of employee-owned Acadian Ambulance.
I tried paying at a restaurant with stock options. It didn't work.
Managing directors at top-tier investment banks may pocket a million a year and be worth tens of millions after a long career. Early employees at tech firms like Uber, Airbnb, and Snapchat can make many times that amount of money in a matter of years.
If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company. In the N.F.L., nothing like this happens; the players, though rich, are just working stiffs like the rest of us.
The vast majority of companies don't go public and mint dozens of millionaires. And most companies don't go around doling out stock options; private companies tend to be very tight about ownership.
