Stock is not free. Equity is expensive if you're working for a good company. As a founder I would much rather pay out cash , but that's generally not what people are after (esp director, vp level)
I stopped taking options given away by startups seriously on November 10, 2011 [1]. Maybe stock is not "free", but employees should discount the nominal value a lot more than they seem to. What's a good ratio, as a rule of thumb? 1:10? 1:100?
At any rate, employees should not take them seriously in comp negotiations until they are well into FU money territory, should they ever pay out at a reasonable valuation after accounting for underhanded shit like excessive dilution and claw-backs.
