| You write: "I would say the only startup worth working on is your own." I think you are, without realizing it, criticizing the small amount of equity normally given out to people who join startups. Yes, if you are getting less than 1% of a startup, and making a big sacrifice for that startup, then the sacrifice may not make any sense. Ellen Beldner does the same thing, in the indirectly linked article. She writes: "Senior engineers / VPs / early directors may get somewhere between 50 and 150 basis points (0.5 - 1.5%)." Those are very small amounts of equity. Such small amounts do not make sense if the idea of the startup is utterly unproven. It is valid to criticize those amounts, but the conclusion should be that early employees should get larger stakes. For the first 3 or 4 people working with a startup, I agree with you that they should be working on "their" startup. And that is the point of equity - to make it theirs. But clearly, early on, with the idea unproven, the equity stakes need to more like 10% or 20% rather than less than 1%. Give someone 10% - 20% of the company and then they are doing what you suggest: the only startup worth working on is your own. They are substantial owners at that point (10% to 20%). And yes, the equity stakes will get diluted later on, if the company is successful, but that is fine, since that is such a great problem to have to worry about - it means you've been successful. Right now, I'm trying to get friends to work with me on my startup. The shares we are considering are all in the 5% to 10% range, rather than the less than 1% range. (It helps too that my startup has already had a few customers, so the idea is not completely unproven.) |