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Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

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Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#71

Post by [deleted] »

ikeyany wrote: post #69
civility wrote: post #56

First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options: $0 Second startup, I was told I'd get 5% of the company (no contract though). I quit after a year without pushing the topic: $0 Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time. I'm retiring this year. I learned a lot o…

How could you afford to work for the first startup for four years without any income?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#72

Post by sgk284 »

tehwebguy wrote: post #44
saryant wrote: post #28

I was employee #1. It sold to google. All employee options were wiped out.

Please tell this story

Pretty standard acquisition story. Shareholders with preferred shares (VCs) got paid first. By the time they were paid there was nothing left. It just means the company was sold for too little for the employees to benefit.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#74

Post by zerr »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #62
rubicon33 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings? That seems... crazy. Can someone explain how that works? Your salary alone living in the bay area, definitely isn't goin to net you $1,000,000 in savings.

I got an offer from Netflix for 450k cash and another offer from FB for 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years, a few years ago. Considering how well those stocks did after such offers were made to me, and how frugal I am (avid minimalist spending Also, the 1M from the startup wasn’t net, but gross (taxed at long term capital gain luckily).

> 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years

Could you please explain how does this work? Is it a one-time payment of 600K spread over 4 years? And afterwards you just end up with 210K base (or maybe a small increase) for the following years, with no additional bonuses/etc?

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#76

Post by poc_m »

avelis wrote: post #73

40k and it was small for how long I was there. I heard others got more for being with the company less time I was. A bit of wisdom here. Be selfish. Get everything you reasonably can.

By 'Be selfish', do you mean aggressively negotiate for more? Or sell as much as you can on the next liquidation event?

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#77

Post by pm90 »

zerr wrote: post #74
deanmoriarty wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an offer from Netflix for 450k cash and another offer from FB for 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years, a few years ago. Considering how well those stocks did after such offers were made to me, and how frugal I am (avid minimalist spending Also, the 1M from the startup wasn’t net, but gross (taxed at long term capital gain luckily).

> 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years Could you please explain how does this work? Is it a one-time payment of 600K spread over 4 years? And afterwards you just end up with 210K base (or maybe a small increase) for the following years, with no additional bonuses/etc?

You need to look up how Equities work.

This looks like an RSU grant of 600K; there are different vesting schedules (i.e. how much of the RSU becomes actual shares in the company, owned by you which you can sell/keep). Typically its 25% every year with a 1 year cliff (i.e. you get 0 actual shares when you start, but 25% after a year and so on).

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#78

Post by [deleted] »

zerr wrote: post #74
deanmoriarty wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an offer from Netflix for 450k cash and another offer from FB for 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years, a few years ago. Considering how well those stocks did after such offers were made to me, and how frugal I am (avid minimalist spending Also, the 1M from the startup wasn’t net, but gross (taxed at long term capital gain luckily).

> 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years Could you please explain how does this work? Is it a one-time payment of 600K spread over 4 years? And afterwards you just end up with 210K base (or maybe a small increase) for the following years, with no additional bonuses/etc?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#79

Post by misabon »

mooman219 wrote: post #57
saryant wrote: post #28

I was employee #1. It sold to google. All employee options were wiped out.

It sounds like the Founders had to have made some poor/greedy decisions if even employee #1 didn't see anything.

Looks like one of Google’s notorious acquihires.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#80

Post by anontechworker »

Started at a company that technically was not a startup at the point I joined (10 years old — 300 employees). I got lucky and 6 months in the company was acquired and all my stock vested immediately. Made about $15k but was given $200k in RSUs at the new company. I can’t complain.
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