I'm not saying this is the case with this round in particular, but it's not unheard of for early employees to take money off the table in a round like this
There was a very "insider baseball" moment in 2011 with regards to AirBNB and a well known investor "discussing" taking money off the table. Note, the investor was basically saying that if the founders get some liquidity, you should offer the same to employees. I will never forget how much that raise my esteem him. [0]
So yes, if they were willing to do it in 2011, I am sure that they are doing it in this round too.
Thanks for sharing that link. Always good to see which investors look out for employees and which founders don’t. Taking a dividend out of the company when most your employees shares are options and not eligible for a dividend is definitely not team spirited. The more transparency to these things the better.
To me it sounds like an argument the investor would make to leverage founders not getting equity.
Investors get paid before employees. What if airbnb had answered to him "we will do that, but also, you cannot make any money at all until employees get it, otherwise this shady way of things will harm you long term".
Coupling one concession to a requirement makes its harder for it to happen: "Sure, I will give you a salary raise if you can commit to working any saturday i tell you to".
Think also that the least money the founder gets off the table, the investor gets lets capital into his investment itself, he is interested in getting as much money into the business itself, not into the founders pockets.
Arent the investors preferences clear in this point? HE prefers the founder not to get money off the table, and puts a requirement on it.
Another way to put it, he recommends a course of action, but is he the one adding extra money so that course of action goes to his preference? If he is, then by all means its at least a great gesture.
Addition: and also, think of it the other way around. What if a founder told the investors "you are not getting any money unless my employees are getting money as well". Becuase thats not how the deals are structured nowadays.
The company isn't compelled in any way to allow this though, and is actually disincentivized from doing so because it increases the probability of key departures as those people are able to extract some value.
If you're in such a position, you better hope that your founders _really_ like you.
I believe most do though, but with a right of first refusal. In which case they will buy them of direct you to their preferred buyer. Source: I have done this and my conversation with the broker for the secondary market who handles a lot of this said it is quite common and that in fact other at the same company I was at had done so. It might be frowned upon internally but you have to look out for yourself. Staying at a startup for 8+ plus years isn't very realistic for me personally.
Many companies have periods of time where you get an opportunity to cash out a percentage of your equity. It gives confidence to early employees that the company has their back and they aren't really disincentivized to leave because they still have a majority of their equity "locked".
How does secondary market transaction work, in these cases? Is it only when a round is raised that shareholders can take money off the table, or does it ever happen between rounds as well?
Can you ELI5 exactly how any employee "takes money off the table" --- I have always been farked in my dealings... so how do I profit? What is the best strategy?
So yes, if they were willing to do it in 2011, I am sure that they are doing it in this round too.
[0] - https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/01/chamath-palihapitiya-airbn...