[nrmitchi]

By the time a company is issuing RSUs instead of options, the cost to pay those taxes at time of grant is likely out of reach for all but the most already-well-off employees.

[pjot]

Not necessarily - I’ve worked for two startups now that issued RSUs to early employees first, and later switched to an option based package.

[nrmitchi]

Your experiene may be different, but I've only even heard of this (RSUs before options) at the very early, pre-fundraising, stage. And this only works because the taxable value of these RSUs at grant is basically $0.

I'm not sure if this approach would make sense after any sort of traction/fundraising.