The 20 million in stock options served two purposes: attracting highly skilled engineers and ensuring team stability.
In another two or three years, it would be commonplace for startups to use stock options as an incentive to attract employees.
Once Mogujie and Meili Shuo were established, they would very likely try to poach employees from the category and Investment Attraction departments. This move by Chen Yansen would not only help retain core team members but also raise the poaching costs for his competitors.
For people like Yuan Wei, Zhang Yifeng, Chen Xu, and Hu Li, he planned to give them stock options worth 500,000 yuan.
If another company wanted to poach them, they would have to cover an additional cost of 500,000 yuan. Otherwise, no one would be willing to leave.
Everyone from customer service representatives to team leads would receive stock options, which would vest in four installments over two years—25% every six months.
