Comment by vessenes

Actually they do it all the time - asking to ‘top up’ employee stock option pools before a round is closed, keeping exec salaries low, or cutting them when the company is running low on money - these are all forms of founder capital contribution that are not compensated. I’m not saying they’re not market, or even that they’re a bad idea. But, consider an exec who could make $300k base plus ISOs at a public company going from $170k to $100k for lean times — what would raising that 70k cost the company in stock? A fully level capital stock playing field would see the 70k investment from the founder independently priced in a fair round and deliver preferred stock. I’m unaware of this ever happening in my last 25 years of startup and venture experience.