right right, but I have to (1) come up with $50k in cash (in my example), and (2) if the job isn't working out, I want the fraction of my initial payment back upon leaving and it isn't clear this happens...
* Employees have less incentive to stay because they won't run into the AMT "handcuff" situation (where if they leave they have to exercise their options or lose them, and they can't afford to pay the taxes to exercise the options).
* More employees will actually exercise their options before liquidity, which means more minority shareholders.