Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

Post by cimmanom » Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 12:04 PM UTC

rgossiaux wrote: post #741

kentonv wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Early-stage companies should offer sufficient equity such that their employees should in expectation earn at least the same as they would at a public company. That's the joke! Nobody comes remotely close to offering enough equity that their total comp is equivalent! Imagine a company that just raised a $1M seed round on convertibles at a $6M valuation cap. Now say they offer an "extremely generous" 2% equity packag…

Yes, I mostly agree. There's one nuance that I've been thinking about lately that I haven't seen anyone ever point out before, which is that high volatility will make options worth more than they are on paper. Here's a thought experiment: imagine that there are two employers on the market. One will always pay 200k/yr guaranteed and you can choose to work for them at any time for this wage. The other pays 100k/yr plus…

Post by cimmanom » Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 12:20 PM UTC

dzimine wrote: post #829

If the comp, stocks, big $ is your primary motivation, look somewhere else. We go to the startup for a thrill. For doing something you strongly believe. For creating something that didn't exist before. If you think you can do it in a big org, too, you are right, now go and try, get a job at Cisco or AT&T. Innovating there is like driving Kia Rio vs Porsche: it's a car, too. It goes thought the motion. But the thrill…

Post by MoBattah » Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 1:02 PM UTC

snowmaker wrote: post #328

modeless wrote: post #288

I was employee 18 at a startup recently acquired by Google. Maybe not super early, but I was able to make big contributions that had a large impact on our eventual acquisition. It was a fun ride but I won't be doing it again for one main reason: startup equity distribution makes zero sense for early employees. Founders get 20+ times the equity. Yes they take more risk and work harder, but they're not taking 20 times…

The second part is something I think we can easily fix. Transparency about how much of the company you own needs to be a given with any good startup.

Post by MoBattah » Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 1:09 PM UTC

rayshan wrote: post #575

I think the biggest problem is transparency, which leads to wrong expectations. As a 3-time startup employee, people always told me I should expect a pay cut by going to a startup. But how much? When I received a Series A startup offer and a FANG offer at the same time, I couldn't evaluate them side-by-side because I had no idea how much startup equity was worth. I negotiated hard and got surprising results, which le…

Post by abc_lisper » Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 3:09 PM UTC

_cs2017_ wrote: post #758

acconrad wrote: post #129

I was the first engineer at a TechStars startup that did have a successful exit (I was there about 5 years before the exit). If there is something I want YC to know, it's this: You helped create the culture of founder empowerment. You have the power to evolve that narrative to those that sacrifice as early employees. Tell the world that early employees deserve a lot more equity. Tell the world that early employees co…

Maybe engineers are more replaceable than founders? That would explain why founders walk away with a lot more cash and credit. After all, there are a lot of good engineers who probably would do a good job as an early employee. And relatively few people who have the vision, motivation, and skill to create a successful company. That said, I sometimes feel that being a successful founder has less to do with skill and mo…