You're deluding yourself here. On average, the vast, vast majority of equity options, _especially_ in the VC backed tech world, turn out to nothing for the employee.

You literally built a tool because there's so many variables, and in the majority of cases, all these variables do not align in a way that results in a payment.

This is almost the literal definition of "uncommon". It is uncommon for options to materialise into a large amount of value for employees.

I respect your tool, and I respect what you're doing. But you need to be honest with yourself and the rest of the world. If you want to help young or new people in this area, then don't perpetuate the myth that startup tech company options are statistically any better than a lottery ticket.

People like you are the ones who grumble that it's hard to find good employees, or have to deal with "bad hires". I've built up and staffed teams for a long time and I understand that the best employees sometimes need flexibility. Because the good ones are all going and working for people who want to treat them like adults and understand that the person doing the hiring is just as disposable as the people attempting to be hired.

If timelines don't line up, you just say they don't line up and go your separate ways. No harm no foul.

And that's fine for some people who are just "passing through" with no concept of ownership of anything. A lot of people probably.

But you're also going to miss out on people that take extreme ownership of success and failure that have really dedicated themselves to various crafts over their life and career.

You will never, ever, ever get the performance and gains by hiring a cog compared to hiring a craftsman.

Just depends on the org priorities.

It's kind of like how when selling a house your optimal strategy is rarely to try to appeal to the most people. Instead, modifications which greatly increase perceived value in a smaller subset (so long as it isn't too small for your personal goals) will alienate most customers but still increase the sale value in the same timespan.

When you're applying for jobs, some companies aren't willing to play that game, and if you're playing it then that's not just fine; it's ideal. You don't waste your time on companies who won't play ball. Enough will that the strategy still works.