[glurgh]

I wouldn't just not participate in a program like this; I wouldn't work for a company I found to be participating in one.

Many (I'd even say most, maybe?) venture-backed startups engage in something like this, though, just not for very concrete things like design or engineering or marketing. Members of 'Advisory Boards' or 'Technical Advisors' or similar often get some nominal amount of stock [options/RSUs/whatnot]. Maybe this just flies under the radar with the expected value by both participants in the transaction being close to nil.

[tptacek]

That's true, but the stock they receive is more in the notion of an honorarium than a payment for services rendered, and there's often mutual benefit aside from the stock (being on advisory boards is, or used to be, a high-status thing). Advisors don't so much try to value the stock they receive. But a lawyer or a web designer has to do that.

Also, the value a company gets from an advisor is long-term. Not the advice, but the NASCAR-sticker-like endorsement the company gets from the name on their website.

[glurgh]

I think (and I should have said so) I was mostly responding to the categorical-sounding 'No' at the start of your comment - such transactions do occur, occasionally even for straight up 'services rendered' (with the other party generally having to pass the 'qualified investor' bar).

I'm probably in violent agreement with you that there is no sensible way someone's going to be able to offer some magical web-based marketplace for such exchanges, for all the reasons you listed.

[tptacek]

Oh, sorry, the categorical no was just an answer to his question of whether I'd get involved in something like this.