The culture that Bill built OK, OK, so Bill and his pals are the privileged few, the Web celebs, the guys who got in early and have managed to stay there. After all, the story goes, the Valley produces new millionaires every 24 hours. There s plenty of venture capital to go around. While the rest of us debate the minimum wage and worry about paying the oil bills, SV types are fussing about how many stock options they have a right to expect. Silicon Valley start-ups choose to support.
Secretaries stroll into job interviews to demand a rundown of their option packages.
A San Francisco newspaper this month published a how to get more options guide for stock newbies titled Grabbing a Piece of the Pie. High-tech mentor capitalist Heidi Roizen is just one of the Valley s business elite who accepts only stock options for her work on corporate boards. Of course it can t last. Smoke and mirrors never do. And already the rumors of market corrections are showing up in headlines, in slowed stock deals, and in postponed public offerings.