11.2 Mythbusting European tech founders don’t understand how to use stock options Busted: European tech companies have historically lagged behind those from the US in their use of stock options as an effective tool to attract, incentivise and retain talent. However, looking at Advanced-HR’s latest employee ownership survey, there are signs that the latest generation of companies from Europe are now properly rewarding their most talented executives and employees. While there is likely sample bias because most founders who participate in the survey are likely to a) understand the issue more and b) be better at remunerating their employees, it is a positive sign. There is still work to do but thanks to leading European VCs, such as Index Ventures and Balderton, more founders are starting to take this issue seriously and the rest will hopefully follow suit. European governments need to pay attention too and ensure the implementation of progressive policies around use of stock options do not lag behind this evolved attitude among European founders. If you support enabling more effective use of stock options to incentivize talent in Europe, we recommend The average level of employee ownership by funding round checking out the Not Optional initiative at www.notoptional.eu. stage is broadly similar in Europe compared to the US Employee ownership by funding round stage 20.0 in 50th percentile by region LEGEND 15.0 Executives (Europe) p i h s Executives (US) r e wn10.0 Staff + Other (Europe) o f o Staff + Other (US) % Unissued (Europe) Unissued (US) 5.0 0.0 Note: Europe US Europe US Europe US Europe US This details equity held by executive-level employees, staff- Seed Series A Series B Series C level employees and remaining unissued options. It excludes Founder’s Shares and equity allocations displayed as a percentage of fully diluted shares. Equity not related to salary nor incentives GDPR has been a disaster for all concerned The European tech community actually takes a surprisingly positive view on the impact of GDPR, especially in terms of whether it has been a good thing for European consumers. There is a more nuanced perspective on whether it has had Importantly, however, there is a very strong majority agreement across the board from all stakeholder types that a negative impact on their own companies, but if it is generally seen as positive for GDPR has been a good thing for European consumers. One might say, therefore, that any perceived negative consumers then it’s possible to argue it is a necessary cost to scale ethically. impact for companies is a justi able cost of scaling more ethically GDPR has been a good thing for European consumers DATASET: ALL RESPONDENTS LEGEND Agree All respondents Neither agree nor disagree Disagree 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 % of respondents 144 In Partnership with & www.thestateofeuropeantech.com