---
title: "Millionaire by options, not inheritance | Riku Asikainen | Negotiator 305"
titleOriginal: "Miljonääriksi optioilla ei perinnöllä | Riku Asikainen | Neuvottelija 305"
episodeNumber: "305"
guest: "Riku Asikainen"
datePublished: 2025-02-12
duration: "46:00"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["ownership_capital_tax","ma_exits"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guest chairs the Finnish Venture Capital Association and works in growth investing, so he is arguing for a reform his industry would benefit from; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states that."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/557-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-asikainen-neuvottelija"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep305-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-riku-asikainen/
---
# Millionaire by options, not inheritance | Riku Asikainen | Negotiator 305

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=0s) Content warning: two economists and Finglish
- [00:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=38s) From Dragons' Den to a bookshop and fifty angel investments
- [02:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=120s) Evli Growth Partners and the scarcity of scale-up capital in Finland
- [02:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=162s) Down round, in Finnish
- [03:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=203s) The Translink SaaS index, and vertical SaaS without English
- [04:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=289s) Miettinen's thesis, and what an option actually is
- [06:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=372s) Options at Nokia, Sampo and Fortum: what happened
- [08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=480s) Options are taxed as earned income on a single day
- [08:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=534s) The strike price and a 59 per cent marginal rate
- [10:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=608s) An international hire does not want Finnish options
- [10:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=642s) Capital gains tax would lose no revenue, because there is none
- [11:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=677s) A CFO paid half in options: the American model
- [11:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=710s) A buyer puzzled by the employer charges in an exit
- [12:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=728s) The cap table problem and waterfall calculations
- [14:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=889s) A thesis for Ahtisaari
- [15:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=916s) Kopra's employee share model is too complex
- [16:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1007s) The demand: employee options as capital income
- [17:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1031s) Board members, and the taxman's ownership decisions
- [18:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1125s) A 2025 Supreme Administrative Court ruling on options to shares
- [21:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1268s) Broad option pools support an IPO market
- [22:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1370s) Elon Musk got rich on options, not as a founder
- [24:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1456s) Kim Väisänen as Finland's DOGE man
- [25:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1520s) Option tax reform for the government's final stretch
- [26:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1575s) Inheritance tax: a public apology
- [27:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1664s) The family business lobby, and what inheritance tax costs
- [29:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1740s) Capital gains tax protects passive wealth
- [30:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1818s) Business succession relief and the 3.8 per cent effect
- [31:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=1884s) Sweden without gift tax, and Kickstarter patrons
- [34:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2050s) The lock-in effect and compounding
- [36:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2178s) Sweden's 700 billion wealth lead
- [36:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2205s) Median wealth is nonetheless the same
- [38:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2329s) A ten per cent chance in the government programme
- [39:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2375s) The worst tax is the tax on earned income
- [41:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2491s) Finnish peculiarities in a cross-border exit
- [43:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2580s) Norway's wealth and exit taxes drive talent away
- [45:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA&t=2707s) Inner Circle: an angel against Dragons' Den

## Summary

Riku Asikainen of Evli Growth Partners — also chair of the Finnish Venture Capital Association — and Sami Miettinen work through why employee options disappeared from Finland and what that has cost growth companies. An option is taxed as earned income on the day it is exercised, so five years of appreciation land in a single day at the top marginal rate. Asikainen's thesis has an unusual shape: because no option income arises at all today, moving to capital gains taxation cannot lose a single euro of revenue — you cannot lose from zero. Also the cap table and waterfall calculations, a buyer's bafflement at employer charges landing in an exit, Yrjö Kopra's employee share model, and a Supreme Administrative Court ruling on swapping options for shares.

## The mechanism

An employee option is taxed as earned income on the day it is exercised. Five years of
appreciation therefore land in one tax year at the top marginal rate, which is why the
instrument disappeared from Finnish growth companies and why an international hire treats
a Finnish option grant as close to worthless.

## The argument's unusual shape

Most tax reform arguments rely on dynamic effects that the other side disputes. This one
does not: if essentially no option income arises today, then moving to capital gains
taxation cannot lose revenue, because there is none to lose. That is a structural claim
rather than a behavioural forecast — and it is made by someone whose industry would gain
from the change.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Miljonääriksi optioilla ei perinnöllä | Riku Asikainen | Neuvottelija 305](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUnEp0w9BvA).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/557-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-asikainen-neuvottelija).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep305-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-riku-asikainen/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep305-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-riku-asikainen/).

## Explore the ideas in depth

- [How to Sell a Company in Finland: An M&A Banker's Guide to a Clean Exit](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/how-to-sell-a-company-in-finland/): A practical guide to selling a company in Finland and the Nordics — the process phase by phase, share deal vs asset deal, valuation, due diligence, buyer types, deal structures, taxes on the sale, minority squeeze-outs and the ownership context that shapes every exit. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and Translink M&A practice.
- [Nordic SaaS Valuation & M&A: How AI Reprices Software Companies](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/nordic-saas-valuation-and-ma/): How software companies in the Nordics are valued and sold as AI moves inference into the cost of goods sold — where multiples stand in mid-2026, the metrics that get repriced, why vertical SaaS defends its premium, AI due diligence, and the shift from seats to outcomes. Grounded in Translink's SaaS valuation work and Neuvottelija conversations.
- [Private equity in Finland: active ownership, growth and AI-assisted investor relations](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/private-equity-finland-active-ownership-and-ai/): A practical guide to venture capital, growth and buyouts, ownership economics, risks and investor communication — with Pia Santavirta’s Neuvottelija 94 interview and Sami Miettinen’s March 2026 FVCA workshop.

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Millionaire by options, not inheritance | Riku Asikainen | Negotiator 305, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep305-miljonaariksi-optioilla-ei-perinnolla-riku-asikainen/, 2025-02-12. For quotes include episode 305 and timestamp.