[tptacek]

It's fair for law firms. It's not fair for product companies:

(a) It only works when employees have control over revenue; the partner model disenfranchises important company roles that happen to be distant from revenues.

(b) It rewards the best salespeople and punishes people who prefer less business-facing and more technical-facing work.

(c) It works for investments/companies who are valued on continuing revenues from services, but breaks down totally when the company is valued based on forward revenues, which almost every software firm is.

(d) It creates an up-or-out model in which it is almost axiomatic that team members who fail to make partner will leave; in other words, it creates teams comprised of short-timers led by an aristocracy of long-term strivers. It also begs for churn and selects for ladder-climbers.

Even lawyers don't like the biglaw partner model. It does work, but know what you're getting into.

(I co-manage a consultancy that is larger than most YC companies).