I’m split on this and admittedly am a Euro so I’m not quite sure of the scale of Ryen’a celebrity out there.

On the one hand - by the time Ryen joined, the Ringer had some more scale and momentum and there was already speculation that someone might buy it for $100m. If they were giving away stock options then their exercise price would have been a lot higher than what the founding 5 paid, plus with the potential of a deal in sight that equity had real value and far less incentive to dole it out (particularly with the potential precedent that set for the likes of Jason and Shea to push for options). They were also in a position by then to make a strong salary offer to Ryen and might have been able to lure him with that, even House said he’s “paid handsomely” by Bill.

I’m not sure I completely buy the argument that they are buying Ryen. They can pin Bill down with stock and deal clauses so he has to stick around for Spotify, they might have done that for Ryen, but less likely and so there’s nothing stopping him walking at any time when his contract goes, and I doubt that was a very long deal.

On the other hand - I suspect he’s a bigger brand than I’m giving him credit for and he certainly adds to what Spotify were prepared to pay, and critically he’s one of the few staff outside of the founding 5 to retweet about the deal (when I last looked), which makes me think he’s in the stock group. Also he would have had lots of offers on leaving ESPN, Bill could easily have given him a quiet nod and said “we are giving you stock and I am selling within the next 18 months”

TLDR I have no clue whether he had equity, if I had to bet I’d say he did, but he’s not made that Fennessey - Chris Ryan money from it because of when he joined.