<prompt> Human: My current employer is a startup LLC. Its about 3 years old and we only have a few employees but are expanding.Ive been working my ass off since I started just over a year ago. 50-70 hour weeks consistently. I redesigned rewrote our entire product from scratch basically alone. humble brag but it helps support coming info.When I started we had no clients or real prospects, now we have 3-5 clients that are in the process of signing documents and will be using the product within 2-3 months. Basically its crucial we finish up a few features and make sure everything is bug free.Well a couple months ago Google called me up and flew me out to Mountain View for an interview. I told the CEO about it a month before I went down. He freaked out because they really cant loose me. He said hed try to offer me part ownership of the company to stay even if I dont get the job.Didnt get the job at Google. Now that its crunch time I need to take on a lot more responsibilities. At least until we expand to almost 300 of the company. It means a lot more work than what Im already doing.The CEO talked to his lawyers to figure out how to get me partial ownership. They said theyll give me something called Equity Appreciation Rights. 5 vested over 4 years. They said it is similar to stock options but for LLCs and that I wont have to pay taxes on it.I have never heard of Equity Appreciation Rights, what the rules of them are, the proscons, etc. Can anyone give me any info about what to expect? Is there any red flags I should watch out for, if 5 is anything to write home about, etc. This is a lot more responsibility and I need to know if it is worth my extra effort.Thanks in advance for any help!Assistant: I havent heard of this either but if you want to maintain a good relationship with your employer then get the offer in writing, ask for an appropriate time to review hisher offer, and hire a lawyer to review it.If you think its in your best interest then accept. If its not, produce a counter offer and negotiate. Dont make a mistake and spit in the CEOs face even if the offer isnt legit. You need show some business acumen because you are in a prime position to walk out ahead. Human: Thats a good point. I didnt think about a counter offer and one of the things Im most worried about is causing some bad blood. Ill have to handle this pretty carefully.  <response>: Ive worked in a couple of startups, and in my experience not only will CEOs not begrudge you bringing some business acumen to these negotiations, to the contrary theyll probably respect it. Sure, in an ideal world theyd have a bunch of excellent employees who were willing to work for peanuts and minimal equity, because that would make their job a lot easier. But this isnt an ideal world, and on a human level any worthwhile CEO will understand that the employees all want a share in the success that might be coming down the line. Thats what youre working these 70 hour weeks for. So at that point it really just becomes a question of how much of a stake you have the leverage to command, and it sounds like you have a lot.But yeah, as long as youre respectful and professional in advocating for yourself, your CEO should not hold it against you. If he does, thats kind of a red flag anyway. 