A stock option is a lottery ticket (some are better odds than others). Notice how the wall street guys that deal with probabilities in financial instruments all day long in a professional capacity expect bonuses in cash.

I think at the big tech companies, it's comparable to cash but favored even more so because (if you hold them for a year) you can take capital gains (15-20%) on them instead of paying 40%+ tax. I don't think s73ver wasn't talking about startups that are pre-IPO.

I think this only applies at companies not using RSUs. Since I think you get taxed immediately (no capital gains) with RSUs.

A lot of that may be deferred, depends on the firm.

I knew a guy at a fund who told me he hated the place, but he was locked in for the next 5 years due to several million being deferred. No motivation at all, the guy sounded very jaded.