The Promise & Potential of Employee Equity

While offering equity is an org-wide pursuit, its potential impact is hugely personal. Dive into an employee perspective on equity and how equity reflects the Pliancy ethos.

Peter Radonich

Regional Associate Director, East Coast

Pliancy partners with ambitious companies tackling important problems, particularly those at the start of their journeys. It’s the caliber of these clients that drew me to Pliancy in the first place.

We’re proud to support clients who have gone public or been acquired for millions (or even billions) of dollars, and I’ve seen firsthand how benefitting from equity can change employees’ lives.

But it’s not only our clients who are aiming high. Pliancy is, too. From the day I joined Pliancy, there’s one message that has stayed constant:

We’re trying to create something that we feel is important; something that will be of value not only to us, but to the world.

Working in IT can be a hard lifestyle, especially when you’re just starting out. It’s like being a 21st-century carpenter. It’s a trade. If we can improve even one facet of the IT services industry, it will help the future generations of folks who pursue this work.

Offering equity stock options to employees isn’t common in this field, and it’s just one way we are trying to change the landscape of this industry.

Pliancy is showing its peers and competitors that there is a different way to do this work and still be successful.

You can create a positive place to work, you can treat people well, you can give them room to grow, you can show them in creative ways that they are valued, you can invite them on the journey—and still be a stable, profitable business.

There’s no rule saying that Marcus had to give up shares to create an employee option pool. He had sole ownership of Pliancy and, frankly, he could have kept it that way. Instead, his decision is a reflection of Pliancy’s ethos to put people first, even when it’s not easy.

Stock options don’t guarantee anything, especially for a company at our stage. But that’s a beautiful thing to me.

It’s a powerful gesture that says, “We’re building something. We’re aiming to be part of something. We intend to grow to a point where this symbolic offering becomes worth so much more, and we’re going to do it together.”

This is part II in a series of short essays on employee equity at Pliancy: why we choose to offer it, how equity reflects our efforts, what it means to employees, and how to make equity a reality.

Part I

From Sole Ownership to Shared Ownership

Part II

In Pursuit of Shared Success

Part IV

Making Equity a Reality: A Brief Primer

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