My company wasn’t a work 12 hours a day, fly by night, vc based, high growth company. I started it with my partner 20.5 years ago. The core of people who were with us from the beginning (and are still with us) are very, very happy with what they got. They were designated as key employees and each got enough to buy a house (or at least most of one!) Our new CEO got a 500K kicker for just being in the company for the last 5 months.
I think that options are a great idea for new startups. High growth potential, high risk. Hard work and they have a stake in the company.
Our business was a nice size and was very profitable, but not growing in profitability. People came in and worked 9-5. Different story. Generally there is a trade off between stability and salary requirements and options given. I would venture to guess that the assemblers won’t get enough to buy a mustang, if the VP of sales and marketing gets a Aston Martin.
