Re:Mailchimp insiders react to employees getting no equity f...
by BoorishBears on Friday September 17, 2021 @02:31AM
(#28561963)
This is a very uncharitable view of how most people would feel in this situation.
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Imagine a lottery/raffle/etc. where the state says "we're probably not going to be drawing the results for this, so instead of giving you a ticket with an expected value of $0.05 we'll give you a guaranteed $10 right now"
Mathematically that's a very generous offer!
But then the state turns around and runs the lottery after everyone takes them up on that offer with the understanding the ticket would be worth $0 if there's no draw.
The state paid you more than the expected value of your ticket, by the math you got compensated more than a fair amount and the odds are you would have made a lot less than $10... but do you think most people will be upset?
More upset than if they had just lost a normal drawing?
sour-grapes. They see the equity payout, and imagined that they'd get a piece of it had they been compensated with equity.
What they don't see is the loss if the company went bust - like most startups do - because hindsight is 20/20
so realistically, it makes little difference if a company paid in equity or cash - as long as you calculate the discount for the equity compensation appropriately.