We spend a lot of time praising tech investors and entrepreneurs for their risk appetite. But why don’t we put startup workers on the same pedestal?
Who’s taking on more risk: a Stanford grad who leveraged their network to raise a seed round, or an immigrant worker who relocates to an expensive city for a startup job?
In its latest yearly report, Secfi, which helps workers manage equity, found that 24% of the companies on its platform reduced their valuations last year.
“For people working at those startups, that means some (in some cases, all) of their employee stock options spent 2022 underwater,” writes Secfi CEO Frederik Mijnhardt.
Considering how central equity is to attracting tech talent, “underwater stock options have the potential to negatively impact hiring and retention across the startup ecosystem,” he writes.
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