| I think that your evaluation of the employee not entirely understanding the toll it has taken on you, is fair. Sympathy and empathy only go so far. One thing I'd suggest is - In this description, you've emphasized the hours put in. That's fair. You work hard and feel that this deserves compensation. But - if you were following that logic - your first 2 employees SHOULD combine to have more stock than you. You certainly don't put in more man hours than 2 employees put together. Nor are you likely paid for the risk you take. You could hire an employee that drops out of college or otherwise risks their future opportunities. They will likely not get as much stock as you. The thing that you could probably emphasize is how core to the success of your company your contributions are. It is not a given that your contributions are worth your compensation (compared to the developer). On a similar vein, one could argue that parents are the people who contributed the most to the success of their children. While you could argue that this is logistically true - in practical, the conception is a very small part of what makes the child successful. What's important is what comes afterwards. So - It might be true that you work hard. But I'd recommend you fall back on to the value you bring to the table, when justifying your compensation. |