I could easily see the situation evolving that "unicorns" would either have to provide liquidity for options or pay over market rates. An engineer at FB or Google that getting paid in Restricted Stock units in addition to their salary sees it as "extra pay" and an employee who sees a company that will never let them sell options as not a smart place to work.
It does open up some creative financing though. Imagine a "common only" startup, one where every share bought by investors or earned as an option had the same rights and liquidation preference. Or my favorite[1] starting a company with a fixed 5 billion shares all at a par value of $1 each. Then only pay your employee in shares, only get investments by selling shares to investors.
[1] I call it a favorite since we joked at a party once that if you did this, and convinced a friend to buy a hundred shares for $100 you could call yourself a self made billionaire! And be completely truthful.
It does open up some creative financing though. Imagine a "common only" startup, one where every share bought by investors or earned as an option had the same rights and liquidation preference. Or my favorite[1] starting a company with a fixed 5 billion shares all at a par value of $1 each. Then only pay your employee in shares, only get investments by selling shares to investors.
[1] I call it a favorite since we joked at a party once that if you did this, and convinced a friend to buy a hundred shares for $100 you could call yourself a self made billionaire! And be completely truthful.