Actually, a lot of startups pay below “scale” – of course, if that startup goes public, there’s a huge difference between a stock option issued at $0.10 (what I got a large block grant at when I worked at a startup), and a stock option issued at $43.00 (what I got issued this year). On the other hand, that stock option issued at $0.10 may wind up fairly valued (as tissue paper) if the company never goes public or the company needs to do massive reverse splits due to running out of capital and needing new venture capital partners (both of which happened at my startup – they should’ve taken the buyout at $10/sh that was offered just before the telecom bust heh).
