THE SAAS RECKONING: STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION WAS NEVER FREE

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

For a decade, SaaS companies added stock-based comp back on the way to "adjusted" EBITDA and pretended that 5-8% annual dilution was a footnote. Employees never bought it. They sell RSUs on vest day, budget the income like salary, and experience a stock decline as a pay cut. Now AI is repricing the entire SaaS universe, and companies that rode the add-back face an ugly choice: grant more shares to keep talent (brutal dilution when the stock recovers) or hold the line and watch people leave.