Cutter wrote on Aug 18, 2012, 14:52:
Going into a job like this you'd have to be nuts thinking it was going to last. This is the sort of job you take only if you have to, and even then you're still looking for something better ASAP.
Employees got some ownership. It's easy to join a startup under those circumstances:
1) There tends to be more passion at startups than otherwise, for a few reasons (mostly in the list below)
2) Employees get some ownership, even if just 0.1%. The hope is that, if things go well, that'll be six or seven figures.
3) Employees have a lot of lattitude to do a lot of work, pick their work, change their work, and advance quickly
4) Other employers often like seeing that because it means an employee had more opportunity to flex his wings and diversify
But yeah, it's a gamble, one that comes crashing down more often than not, and as to that ownership, we've all seen The Social Network, which was even than a fairly lucky, positive outcome for the guy screwed over.