创业与商业software.rajivprab.com
如果创始人像对待员工那样对待投资人
If founders treated their investors the same way they treated their employees
2020 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
文章用讽刺假设展开：如果创始人像对待员工那样对待投资人——信息不透明、期权条款苛刻、风险主要由对方承担——会是什么样，借此批评初创公司对员工的信息不对称与股权待遇。它把投资人能看到的 cap table、财务信息和谈判权，与员工通常只能靠传闻和碎片信息做决策的处境做了尖锐对比。
为什么经久不衰：它把初创公司里投资者与员工之间的双重标准讲得具体又刻薄，多年后仍是理解股权激励、信息不对称和雇佣谈判的一篇好文。
HN 评论精选
加入初创公司应出于学习、兴趣或工作方式，而不是发财、高薪或稳定。
为初创公司工作的正当理由包括：你是联合创始人；你经验很少，想借机入行并接触多种技术；他们做的是你特别想做的具体问题或技术，别处很难做；你想要某种工作方式（远程、在海滩上等），他们愿意接受。不正当理由包括：靠期权发财；拿高薪；工作生活平衡；稳定。
seibelj查看英文原文
Valid reasons to work for a startup: - You are a cofounder. - You have little experience and you are using this to break into the industry, and get experience on many different technologies ("wear many hats"). - They are working on a very specific problem or using a specific technology that you strongly desire to work on and it's difficult to do it anywhere else. - You want to work a certain way (remote, on the beach, whatever) and they are willing to go this route. Invalid reasons for working at a startup: - Getting rich off stock options. - Making a lot of money in salary. - Work / life balance. - Stability.
谈判权来自敢于说不；员工缺乏拒绝能力，才容易被区别对待。
创始人确实会这样对待部分投资人，比如每个 ICO、很多海外傻钱和不少亲友/傻瓜轮。反过来，有些员工被小心呵护，享受投资人待遇，比如高管招聘。差别基本就是两个字母：“不”。多数机构投资人有能力和意愿拒绝交易；许多高管甚至高级 FAANG 工程师也能拒绝。你普通的两三年经验工程师没有，或者有也不懂拒绝 offer 的力量。谈判从“不”开始：保持好奇开放，面试时表现热情，但一旦觉得被不公平对待就走人，人们就会停止不公平对待你。
nostrademons查看英文原文
So founders do treat some of their investors like this - look at every ICO, and a lot of dumb overseas money, and a good number of friends/family/fools rounds. And conversely, there are some employees that they treat with kid gloves, who basically get the investor treatment. Look at executive hires. The difference is basically two letters: "No". Most institutional investors have the ability and inclination to say no to a deal. Many executives - or even high-level FAANG engineers - have the ability and inclination to say no to a deal. Your average engineer a couple years out of college does not, or if they do, they don't understand the power of declining a job offer. Start your negotiations with "no". Be curious and open to opportunities, and show a lot of enthusiasm during the interview process, but whenever you feel you're treated unfairly, walk away. People will stop treating you unfairly.
持续有新人愿意接受差条件，是问题存续的结构原因。
这类文章总是不提初创公司为什么能得逞。如果这套行不通，期权游戏早就停了。很多人不愿承认，有一小支年轻天真的员工大军迷恋初创公司，愿意为“初创体验”接受低于市场的薪水和极不利的期权条款。重要的是，这支小军不断自我更新。反复说游戏被操纵其实改变不了什么。
mdorazio查看英文原文
Always absent in these kinds of essays/posts is the reason why startups are able to get away with this. If it didn't work, obviously the options games would have stopped a long time ago. A lot of people don't want to admit that there's a small army of young, naive employees who are enamored with startups and are perfectly willing to sign up for below-market salary and extremely unfavorable options terms in exchange for "the startup experience". And importantly, this small army is constantly renewing itself. Repeatedly bringing up how much the game is rigged doesn't really do much to change anything.
90 天限制源于 ISO 税务合规，不完全是故意坑员工。
每次这类文章都写得像 90 天行权窗口是初创公司发明来坑员工的。提醒一下：90 天窗口是法律要求，期权才能符合激励性股票期权（ISO）资格并让员工享受税收优惠。你想 10 年行权没问题，但在法律改变前那些是 NSO，不享受特殊税收待遇，行权时就要缴税而不是出售时。
carlosdp查看英文原文
Every time one of these is written, it comes off as if the 90-day window is something startups came up with to try and screw employees. A reminder that the 90-day window is a requirement by law in order for options to qualify as Incentive Stock Options, and receive favorable tax treatment for employees [1]. If you want to do 10-yr exercise, that's fine, but until the law is changed those will be NSOs and not receive that special tax treatment and will be taxed on exercise instead of on sale. [1] https://www.cooleygo.com/isos-v-nsos-whats-the-difference/
历次讨论
同类还值得读
微软已死（2007）
Microsoft is Dead (2007)
Paul Graham 2007 年的一篇短文，判断微软在互联网与创业竞争中已不再令人畏惧、失去影响力——所谓“死”并非字面倒闭。
创业与商业上首页 8 次 · 2007–2025paulgraham.comH&R Block 与 Intuit 游说反对简化报税（2017）
H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017)
2017年ProPublica调查报道梳理了H&R Block和Intuit如何通过游说反对更简单的美国报税方式，尤其是政府预填税表和免费申报等改革。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2017–2022propublica.org你本不该有老板
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss (2008)
Paul Graham 2008 年的经典文章，论证人类在演化中习惯于小团体协作，而大公司的层级结构和老板制度是人为产物，对程序员尤其有害——因为编程的本质是创造新事物，而大公司…
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2020paulgraham.com为什么要在经济糟糕时创业
Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy
Paul Graham 的经典短文，论证经济衰退并不是创业的障碍：真正决定成败的是创始人和产品，而非宏观环境；衰退期反而竞争更少、人才更易招、成本更低。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2022paulgraham.com做那些不可规模化的事
Do Things that Don't Scale
Paul Graham 2013 年的经典创业文章《Do Things that Don't Scale》。
创业与商业上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025paulgraham.com编辑精选