The fact that employee ownership is not a straightforward thing, even if it should be, can be seen that only 17 % of European employees at late-stage startups have employee ownership this year. A caveat that I haven’t checked if that is both options and shares or only shares, but regardless 17 % is a dismal number. It should be closer to a 100 %.

Every type of investor has its pros and cons, but one thing venture capital does better than most others (family owned firms, public market investors etc), even if the European numbers don’t prove it, is a belief in broad employee ownership via options.