As someone with equity I always assumed everyone wants equity. I've come to discover that most people just want a nice stable salary.
The incidence of "owners" is higher in tech, in part because its an easy way to start a business. Low capital needs, cheap equipment, no formal qualification required, and lots of examples of success to emulate. In other words equity in computer startup is highly attractive to those who have that bent in the first place.
>> I'm writing a longer post on how I think about hiring for my company, but the gist is that I want 100% equity players with the thesis that work will get done without the excess headcount.
In my experience this hasn't always worked well for me. Those that favour equity often end up going off to start their own business, where they get more equity, and don't have to deal with pesky folk like me. It's certainly worth a try, but I think you'll discover that most people just want a salary.
Equally, my advice to workers is to get a good salary first, and consider options et al to be likely worth nothing. For equity to be meaningful it has to be substantial, and you just don't get infinite substantial slices out of 100%.
Of course if your company is google successful, then great, even tiny slices make millionaires. But its vanishingly unlikely that your company turns out like that.
I'll end with this - you have a thesis and it's certainly worth a punt. If nothing else it's valuable data for your next business. It'd be great if your thesis works out (for your sake I hope it does) but be prepared for unexpected outcomes, and try and recognize those outcomes early. Perhaps, just perhaps, there's a reason most companies don't work like this.
The reason people don’t want equity is that equity is usually irrational once you get beyond a handful of employees. If you are employee #3 and you got 10% equity, sure that could make sense. You have enough impact to influence the value of that equity a lot. If you are employee #20 and you got 0.3% equity, hell no it doesn’t make sense. Employees #1-19 are getting all of the gains from your above-and-beyond efforts. You might as well work at a NGO.
The incidence of "owners" is higher in tech, in part because its an easy way to start a business. Low capital needs, cheap equipment, no formal qualification required, and lots of examples of success to emulate. In other words equity in computer startup is highly attractive to those who have that bent in the first place.
>> I'm writing a longer post on how I think about hiring for my company, but the gist is that I want 100% equity players with the thesis that work will get done without the excess headcount.
In my experience this hasn't always worked well for me. Those that favour equity often end up going off to start their own business, where they get more equity, and don't have to deal with pesky folk like me. It's certainly worth a try, but I think you'll discover that most people just want a salary.
Equally, my advice to workers is to get a good salary first, and consider options et al to be likely worth nothing. For equity to be meaningful it has to be substantial, and you just don't get infinite substantial slices out of 100%.
Of course if your company is google successful, then great, even tiny slices make millionaires. But its vanishingly unlikely that your company turns out like that.
I'll end with this - you have a thesis and it's certainly worth a punt. If nothing else it's valuable data for your next business. It'd be great if your thesis works out (for your sake I hope it does) but be prepared for unexpected outcomes, and try and recognize those outcomes early. Perhaps, just perhaps, there's a reason most companies don't work like this.