Well, the technical definition of "poaching" is illicit hunting.
Misrepresenting the company's prospects (e.g. revenue, runway, VC situation) and the person's role in the company (e.g. claiming he'll be doing more challenging work or have a more important job that he'll actually have) would be unethical. Extending an option to someone with full disclosure is not considered unethical by any interpretation I'd consider.
That said, people use "poaching" in job searching more casually, so I guess we're debating terminology on this one.
Misrepresenting the company's prospects (e.g. revenue, runway, VC situation) and the person's role in the company (e.g. claiming he'll be doing more challenging work or have a more important job that he'll actually have) would be unethical. Extending an option to someone with full disclosure is not considered unethical by any interpretation I'd consider.
That said, people use "poaching" in job searching more casually, so I guess we're debating terminology on this one.