&gt; This isn&#x27;t shady, it&#x27;s so the founding team stops worrying about money and focuses full-time on the company.<p>Uh, no.  It&#x27;s so that the founders won&#x27;t sell the company at a mere 4-5x rather than then 20-100x that the VC&#x27;s want.<p>If it was genuinely about the company, they&#x27;d let <i>all</i> the initial people take some stock off the table.  Instead they only allow the people who could sell the company to take stock off the table.<p>Big difference.