[erikbye]

Early MSFT employees were compensated heavily with stock options. I think it's also pretty safe to say that few devs from that period are still coders, they've moved on to other roles or retired.

From Show Stopper!:

Technical preferences aside, the success of Windows was a windfall for Cutler and colleagues. Most had received sizable stock option grants on joining Microsoft, partly to compensate for their reduced wages. At other companies such stock grants might return 10 to 25 percent profit to a grateful employee over five to ten years. A doubling of value would be a bonanza. But lately Microsoft's stock had soared-with no limit in sight. Demand for Windows transformed Microsoft from the leader of the software pack into a giant looming over the rest of the industry. The company's net profits were especially impressive; an astonishing 25 percent of sales flowed to the bottom line. Options granted to Cutler two years earlier, while substantial at the time, were now breathtaking. And the stock price seemed a cinch to double over the next few years, given the company's bullish outlook.

Even at the current stock price, Cutler's options now were worth at least several million dollars. Havens and Perazzoli, meanwhile, were assured of clearing high six figures. Even the team's rookie programmer, hired fresh from Princeton the summer before, would reap a few hundred thousand dollars within three years.