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I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

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Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#41

Post by mosselman »

Misleading title and premise: The author makes it seem as if something will be explained for people who are not 'financially-savvy', but nothing is explained. In fact it is made more complex. Which is fine, but still it was kind of misleading. Solid advice to get financial advice nonetheless.

Can someone explain this part to my/some-of-us like I am five?:

"Which muppets advised them to spend hard-earned cash to exercise a non-liquid, highly volatile financial instrument? There is no world where the (relatively) small tax breaks involved justify the expected value equation, given that Good Technology was nowhere near exit."

I have no idea what it says here.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#42

Post by icebraining »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21
cloudjacker wrote: post #7

> So talk to the CFO about the numbers — when you’re hired, when it’s fundraising time, and any time in between. Hahahaha, oh man so here's the part where I just dump all my emails about the answers I have gotten back from CFOs over the last decade: - "common stock shareholders aren't privy to financial details" - "we don't share that information" - "I discussed it with the board [consisting of myself] and they decid…

> common stock shareholders aren't privy to financial details Delaware law lets you make a Section 220 request [1] to inspect a corporation's books and records for a proper purpose, e.g. to identify potential buyers and sellers or for investment valuation purposes. [1] http://www.pepperlaw.com/publications/what-every-corporate-c...

(Noob here) Don't most startups offer stock options and not actual stock nowadays? Is the owner of options classified as a stockholder under the law?

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#43

Post by victor9000 »

romanovcode wrote: post #34

I don't like the tone that equity is a "compensation". In no means it's a compensation, it's not even a bonus. It's just something on top.

It's a lottery ticket. You say thanks when you're given one, but you don't use it to justify a lack of real compensation. Because in the end, you can't pay bills with lottery tickets.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#44

Post by signa11 »

aub3bhat wrote: post #25
vacri wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That all sounds like a fancy way of saying "playing the lottery".

Thats like saying programming is fancy way of saying "banging fingers on keyboard".

> Thats like saying programming is fancy way of saying "banging fingers on keyboard".

perhaps you were referring to the 'infinite monkey theorem' ? i would rather believe programming to be nothing like that.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#45

Post by nibnib »

cLeEOGPw wrote: post #32
nibnib wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. The jargon seems to be the biggest stumbling block here, the concepts make sense. If there is a "Finance for Hackers" out there I would love to read it.

"Finance for Dummies"

A better idea.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#46

Post by javier2 »

mosselman wrote: post #41

Misleading title and premise: The author makes it seem as if something will be explained for people who are not 'financially-savvy', but nothing is explained. In fact it is made more complex. Which is fine, but still it was kind of misleading. Solid advice to get financial advice nonetheless. Can someone explain this part to my/some-of-us like I am five?: "Which muppets advised them to spend hard-earned cash to exerc…

I thought the same. The post does not explain anything at all, just dumps a lot of jargon.

I think it says employees are convinced to spend their money on options/equity in the startup they work for, but a startup is a gamble, most don't work out. Specifically, in the Good Technology the author feels the valuation given in the buy was nowhere near the point at which the investors/founders had hoped to exit?

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#47

Post by [deleted] »

mosselman wrote: post #41

Misleading title and premise: The author makes it seem as if something will be explained for people who are not 'financially-savvy', but nothing is explained. In fact it is made more complex. Which is fine, but still it was kind of misleading. Solid advice to get financial advice nonetheless. Can someone explain this part to my/some-of-us like I am five?: "Which muppets advised them to spend hard-earned cash to exerc…

[deleted]

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#48

Post by Noseshine »

mosselman wrote: post #41

Misleading title and premise: The author makes it seem as if something will be explained for people who are not 'financially-savvy', but nothing is explained. In fact it is made more complex. Which is fine, but still it was kind of misleading. Solid advice to get financial advice nonetheless. Can someone explain this part to my/some-of-us like I am five?: "Which muppets advised them to spend hard-earned cash to exerc…

"advised to exercise their stock options"

The option is free. Exercising them is not. You won't get from having the option to jump into the water, you only get wet if you actually do it.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#49

Post by signa11 »

mosselman wrote: post #41

Misleading title and premise: The author makes it seem as if something will be explained for people who are not 'financially-savvy', but nothing is explained. In fact it is made more complex. Which is fine, but still it was kind of misleading. Solid advice to get financial advice nonetheless. Can someone explain this part to my/some-of-us like I am five?: "Which muppets advised them to spend hard-earned cash to exerc…

> I have no idea what it says here.

i would _guess_ it means that (in this specific scenario): folks miscalculated the perceived tax-break benefits offered (due to option exercise at the time of vesting) vis-a-vis using their money more profitably somewhere else.

Re: I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation

#50

Post by gaius »

debaserab2 wrote: post #23
cloudjacker wrote: post #7

> So talk to the CFO about the numbers — when you’re hired, when it’s fundraising time, and any time in between. Hahahaha, oh man so here's the part where I just dump all my emails about the answers I have gotten back from CFOs over the last decade: - "common stock shareholders aren't privy to financial details" - "we don't share that information" - "I discussed it with the board [consisting of myself] and they decid…

No, I have no interest in being a part of a union and have absolutely no doubt that I can negotiate on behalf of myself better than a giant body responding to the wants of many.

Perhaps a guild might be more to your liking? Until something is done professional VCs will continue to hold undue, exploitative power over engineers due to their flim-flammery.
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