>The cumulative knowledge you need becomes pretty high pretty quickly though,
Yes, I agree that we all go through an early period of ignorance and then we get more financially savvy as we learn more information. We don't know what we don't know.
However, when OP writes, "then I learned "non-dillutable", he/she is misinforming people with expectations that employees can get fixed-percentage ownership that stays at that fixed amount through subsequent investment rounds. The implication is that employees who didn't get such "non-dilutable shares" are getting screwed. This is not the case.[1] The normal situation is for _all_ ownership to dilute. It's not a nefarious trick on the employees.
If people think they are more "financially sophisticated" with knowledge of "no dilution" shares, they are wrong. Instead, if candidates try to negotiate "non-dilutable shares" with a founder as a condition of employment, they will look like clueless idiots. (Reading about mythical "non-dilutable employee shares" on HN made them dumber, not smarter.)
The expected mathematical mechanism for employees to get richer is for the share price to increase instead of the ownership % not to dilute.
Yes, I agree that we all go through an early period of ignorance and then we get more financially savvy as we learn more information. We don't know what we don't know.
However, when OP writes, "then I learned "non-dillutable", he/she is misinforming people with expectations that employees can get fixed-percentage ownership that stays at that fixed amount through subsequent investment rounds. The implication is that employees who didn't get such "non-dilutable shares" are getting screwed. This is not the case.[1] The normal situation is for _all_ ownership to dilute. It's not a nefarious trick on the employees.
If people think they are more "financially sophisticated" with knowledge of "no dilution" shares, they are wrong. Instead, if candidates try to negotiate "non-dilutable shares" with a founder as a condition of employment, they will look like clueless idiots. (Reading about mythical "non-dilutable employee shares" on HN made them dumber, not smarter.)
The expected mathematical mechanism for employees to get richer is for the share price to increase instead of the ownership % not to dilute.
[1] "Non-dilutable stock is impractical and unfair, and in some cases impossible.[...]" : https://www.quora.com/I-was-offered-non-dilutable-equity-by-...