Yes, in addition to the amazing tax benefits of investing rather than being an employee, you get preferred shares.<p>I also want to add that I know of a startup which allowed employees to trade off salary for equity in a way that completely screwed their employees. E.g., they gave their engineers something like either 0.2% and $150k, or 0.3% and $100k.<p>This implied a valuation of $200 million (since an employee would trade off 0.1% of the company for four years of $150k instead of $100k--for an added $200k bonus, and $200k &#x2F; 0.1% is $200 million).<p>At the time, though, the company was selling shares to investors at a valuation of $50 million.<p>In other words, they were charging employees quadruple the price for equity. I&#x27;m thinking about writing a blog post on it.