Perhaps you heard about David Choe, the artist who painted Facebook headquarters in exchange for stock, which today would be worth more than $500 million. There are lots of famous stories about how service providers (e.g., consultants, lawyers, engineers, etc.) got rich by taking start-up equity instead of cash.
Everyone knows the successes, but very few know the failures. Thousands of silicon valley faithfuls walked away with worthless options, or worse got hit with a huge tax bill for AMT before the company went under. Or their stock was diluted in one of many “down rounds” only to see a fraction of the value of their services returned while the venture capitalists got profited handsomely.
We help service providers to evaluate equity compensation and negotiate terms that provide true incentives.