Pre-IPO the venture is likely not profitable, so you'd be getting a share of zero. Companies that are VC-backed are going to be held to an expectation of a big payoff, and will be in general discouraged from offering incentives that uncouple employee incentives from an exit. If I understand this right, it's part of why founders have started to be allowed to sell some of their vested shares at funding events, it gives them some more financial runway as the company's timeline stretches out (you don't want the optics of the CEO of your $50m series C to be eating peanut butter and ramen, etc.)
I do think profit sharing would be a good lever for a bootstrapped company that is already profitable and wants to give key employees skin in the game.
I do think profit sharing would be a good lever for a bootstrapped company that is already profitable and wants to give key employees skin in the game.