Silicon Valley employees often decide to take lower salaries in order to work at a startup like Instagram that offers stock options—the option to purchase shares cheaply at a later date. Those options are restricted based on time. Usually a quarter of the total grant in the job offer becomes available after each year that they continue working, giving an incentive to stick around. For an employee who picks a winning company, the small slice of ownership yields life-changing wealth, like winning the lottery.
