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First employee hired at a startup. Paid for my options before leaving the company. Six months later the company was acquihired by Google. Three months after that I was given paperwork informing me that those shares are now worth exactly $0.00/each. Founders made out well enough from the deal to pick up high-end luxury sports cars though, which is the important part of an exit, right?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd prefer to be the better person here rather than defame them publicly. If anyone would like more information or to discuss this privately, however, my email is in my profile.
I respect that, but maybe people wouldn't get away with this kind of thing if it was made more public.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Max, are you trolling here? This kinda smells like trolling, because I don't think you'd be the type to generalize across all startups like this.
Max is right. As an employee, Startups do beat the shit out of you and if the startup shuts down after a year, you gotta begin all over again from where you started a year back.
I voted three times...but this is missing a negative entry - you know, the scenario where you pay an obscene amount of taxes on the ridiculously inflated price of your shares when you exercise (and can't sell yet while awaiting a liquidity event), but the shares are later downgraded to 1/10th taxable estimate...so you get to hold on to that loss for years, hoping at some point to be able to be in the position to writ…
Wait. Why would you do this? Can't you hold your options as, well, options until you want to exercise and sell them? I don't get why you would convert options to stock unless you wanted to sell them right away. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks.
I voted three times...but this is missing a negative entry - you know, the scenario where you pay an obscene amount of taxes on the ridiculously inflated price of your shares when you exercise (and can't sell yet while awaiting a liquidity event), but the shares are later downgraded to 1/10th taxable estimate...so you get to hold on to that loss for years, hoping at some point to be able to be in the position to writ…
Wait. Why would you do this? Can't you hold your options as, well, options until you want to exercise and sell them? I don't get why you would convert options to stock unless you wanted to sell them right away. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks.
eg. spent 4 years there, fully vested, decide to leave for another opportunity. In most cases there is a very short (30 days is common, sometimes up to 90 days depending upon the options contract) window for you to exercise your options or you will lose them.
You'd have to be pretty dumb to be an employee at a startup because of the money: bad hours, lots of risk, bad pay and lots of personal confrontation.
That's an incorrect overgeneralization. Not all startups are alike, as I'm sure you know. If the employees get screwed over, then it doesn't sound like they are valued. I see many startups where the employees are super valued assets, get a decent salary AND they do what they love.
First employee hired at a startup. Paid for my options before leaving the company. Six months later the company was acquihired by Google. Three months after that I was given paperwork informing me that those shares are now worth exactly $0.00/each. Founders made out well enough from the deal to pick up high-end luxury sports cars though, which is the important part of an exit, right?
First employee hired at a startup. Paid for my options before leaving the company. Six months later the company was acquihired by Google. Three months after that I was given paperwork informing me that those shares are now worth exactly $0.00/each. Founders made out well enough from the deal to pick up high-end luxury sports cars though, which is the important part of an exit, right?
Were you fully vested?