I understand the point behind stock options, I just daresay that the reasoning is a bad cultural fit for most of Europe. I know too little about American culture to be sure here, but this line of reasoning gives me the impression that many Americans start a company or join a startup in order to get rich.
My impression is that this is an uncommon motivation in much of Europe. All (few) successful European enterpreneus that I know (including the founder of my current employer) started a firm for other reasons, typically independence, creating the ideal workplace, or the wish to create some dream product.
Stock options give you the opportunity to get rich, but they don't give you any actual say in what the company does until it goes public. In other words, while it may help motivate employees to make the company a financial success, I can't see how stock options help encourage employees to contribute to a nice workplace environment, having interesting work for yourself and your colleagues, and general workplace happiness.
Now, at the risk of mixing "European culture" and "my opinion" a bit, and I may sound like a softie here, but I just don't think that getting big fast is the only measure to company success.
I think that a small but stable company that's a great place to work at may in well be more considered successful than a company that goes to a massive IPO in two years of work stress, little sleep and broken love relationships.
Also, Stock options are mostly at least in Silicon valley an excuse for a company to get away with paying less to their employees. Another excuse is to use them as a way of saying "It is your company so suck it up and do X" where X might be work 18 hours a day to anything. Classic case of misleading vividness [1] of stellar performance of a fraction of the startups causing this phenomenon to spread.
I do not understand the kind of person whose sense of ownership and responsibility derives from the amount of potential money they have invested. To me, such a person doesn't feel any ownership and responsibility to the company: they feel ownership and responsibility towards their money, which is being held hostage from them contingent on a company's success.
I want to work for a company for whom I'm nearly willing to work for free. Like anyone else, I have bills and expenses and of course I want to be paid... but my goal is to produce and contribute value. Having my basic needs met is a foundation for that.
I dunno. Maybe I'd understand better if I got in on the ground floor of the next Google and cashed out when they hit it big?
