from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

Yesterday the CPO at Checkout .com (valued $40B) and the founder at Mollie ($6B) reacted to my claims that not all engineers get equity at these companies. My take is simple. You can't call yourself a *tech* startup/scaleup if *all* engineers don't get *some* equity.

It's fine to disagree with this: it's my take. Ideally: equity should be for all employees. It's how all companies *I* refer to *tech* scaleups and startups operate. Equity allocation at private companies is almost always with a 1-year cliff: you need to last this long.

And don't get me wrong, companies like Mollie and Checkout I hear good things about engineering cultures, the people hired etc. Right now, equity is a gray zone. You might get it. Maybe not. Tech startups issue this to everyone who performs at the level they are expected to.

There is a reason the first question on The Pragmatic Engineer Test is equity-related: t.co/RK7HIKf5Pl I understand some founders will disagree, want to use equity more as a reward to not all engineers, but only standout ones. I'd not call these places a "startup".

The reactions: Checkout dot com did not say all employees or all engineers have equity. But it seems there's progress. Mollie seems to allocate equity later (probably?). The founder and a current engineer jumped in. Seems like if you're good, you'll (hopefully) get something. t.co/kmH6DFNnjP