That is an interesting thought! I wonder if he did undertake some risk. I just emailed him, as I never properly thanked him. Maybe if he emails back I'll ask.

Also he negotiated a year off of our traditional 5-year vesting (at the time anyway) in the salt mine that is Microsoft, though he was never to take a position there himself.

I see no end to liquidity event horror stories. I'm so lucky.

I haven't seen many start-ups that didn't break the law in some way or another. Sometimes out of sheer ignorance and other times out of expedience. Hell, Airbnb and Uber are built on breaking the law.