Employees in startups are not meant to stay at the startup forever. This is especially true for executives and early employees: people who are amazing in sub-20 or 50 FTE settings might struggle in 50+ or 250+ FTE environments. This is a good thing. You want the right people staying the right amount of time, not to encourage people to stick around another year or two to vest as much as possible before they can exit.
What you need is:
- long exercise windows (10+ years vs. 3 months)
- vesting - could be 2 years, could be 4 years, does not matter. I think shorter is better, even if yoiu might give folks less equity as a consequence. At some point, people don't stay because of their equity, they stay because they are valued at their work doing something meaningful with folks they like.
Employees in startups are not meant to stay at the startup forever. This is especially true for executives and early employees: people who are amazing in sub-20 or 50 FTE settings might struggle in 50+ or 250+ FTE environments. This is a good thing. You want the right people staying the right amount of time, not to encourage people to stick around another year or two to vest as much as possible before they can exit.
What you need is:
- long exercise windows (10+ years vs. 3 months)
- vesting - could be 2 years, could be 4 years, does not matter. I think shorter is better, even if yoiu might give folks less equity as a consequence. At some point, people don't stay because of their equity, they stay because they are valued at their work doing something meaningful with folks they like.
Actually the opposite is true, since so many fail and compensation is limited by cash flow.
Hello Yoni,
I hope this communique finds you in a moment of stillness. Have huge respect for your work.
We’ve just opened the first door of something we’ve been quietly crafting for years—
A work not meant for markets, but for reflection and memory.
Not designed to perform, but to endure.
It’s called The Silent Treasury.
A place where judgment is kept like firewood: dry, sacred, and meant for long winters.
Where trust, patience, and self-stewardship are treated as capital—more rare, perhaps, than liquidity itself.
This first piece speaks to a quiet truth we’ve long sat with:
Why many modern PE, VC, Hedge, Alt funds, SPAC, and rollups fracture before they truly root.
And what it means to build something meant to be left, not merely exited.
It’s not short. Or viral. But it’s built to last.
And if it speaks to something you’ve always known but rarely seen expressed,
then perhaps this work belongs in your world.
The publication link is enclosed, should you wish to open it.
https://helloin.substack.com/p/built-to-be-left?r=5i8pez
Warmly,
The Silent Treasury
A vault where wisdom echoes in stillness, and eternity breathes.