[oblio]

I think his point is for the on-going operations of the company. Employees there at the IPO make a lot of money but those afterwards probably make way less. At many companies employees don't even get any kind of RSU/ESPP/stock option grants, etc.

Just as a though experiment, Apple Inc. has about 140k employees and had a net profit of $55bn last year. If they'd keep half the profit, you know, for a rainy day, they could give a yearly bonus of ~$20k$ to each employee. With 0 risk for the company, financially.

Now, I'm not sure how this would work out since generally cash based bonuses are considered bad for long term motivation, but it is something worth pondering, at least.