Personally, I would be more interested in a profit-sharing system. I understand that actual equity is difficult to do in some situations, but the 1-5 units system could be adapted to offer profit sharing. When the company makes a profit, the portion designated as a distribution gets divided into the total units as employee bonuses. I'm not sure how these units are handled once an employee leaves, but as a guarantee against missing out on a windfall profit or exit I could see this system being useful.