| "What's your opinion on how an employee should deal with a founder who clearly believes more in the A16Z stance on stock options more than the Adam's?" Value the options at zero and take appropriate steps. It may not be the statistical expected result, but it is the modal outcome anyhow. "Appropriate steps" isn't just "quit". If you're happy with the cash salary than you don't have a problem, for instance, or the experience, or the lifestyle, or any of the other reasons you may be choosing to work at a startup. "Obviously it's in the founder's financial best interest (at least on the very surface level) for employees to not have the option to leave the company with shares at all." Well, yeah, but that's sort of vacuous; it's not in the employer's best interest for employees to be compensated at all. But that makes hiring pretty challenging. "What are some strategies an employee can use to make the point that Adam's perspective is a much more employee-friendly one and, thus, better for the company?" There isn't a general answer to that question, because it depends on your status in the company. In some places, even opening that conversation will put you halfway out the door. In others, they'll fall over themselves to fix the problem if you just mention it, because they'll not have heard of this before. You need to judge the situation you're in, and play out the possible scenarios before you step in to something like this. But I'd suggest you're going to need a very solid position to change something this fundamental about a company. Generic advice: It's always easier to negotiate from a fallback position of strength; unless you're absolutely confident in your position, consider having a job in hand before starting this talk. (You don't have to tell your employers that you have an offer in hand.) |