- You probably won't have a 10 year horizon if you are joining a company that is now a unicorn. You likely will if you found a company that later becomes one.
- Sarbanes-Oxley is a big villian here. It pushes the cost of legal compliance through the roof for public companies, forcing companies to delay IPOs until revenue is higher. In addition to delaying liquidity events, it prevents small traders from owning stock in companies that are ramping from ~100m valuation to ~1b, which is why there are so many unicorns now. This hurts normal investors big time, and helps people with access to private markets. (source: friendly neighborhood VC)
- the article doesn't go into AMT, where the IRS forces you to knowingly overpay tax when you exercise ISOs, then (slowly) pays it back over the years.