We've seen a lot of data at YC now, and the most successful companies and the ones where the investors do the best... end up giving a lot of stock out to employees- year after year after year.

You want an idea about what you can say. I know it sounds like a bad idea but here's specifically why its actually a great one. You want to sound crazy but you want to ask to be right.

Investors will sort of like write the check and then, despite a lot of promises, don't usually do that much; sometimes they do.

Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.

You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.

So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.

Every company has a rocky beginning.