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I recently received an offer from a startup that includes 0.3% equity, but the salary is slightly lower than what I was expecting. The HR team mentioned that I could get a $20K salary increase if I accept a reduced equity of 0.15%.
Is this a fair trade-off? What factors should I consider when deciding between more salary and less equity?
I'd love to hear your thoughts or any experiences you've had with making similar decisions. Thanks!
The main thing to keep in mind is most equity usually ends up being unrealised or diluted.
It really depends on how much you value money in your hand now, vs waiting. If you have a cliff and vesting schedule, can you see yourself waiting? If it’s a year cliff and you struggle to enjoy staying at places, you’ll end up with no equity and $20k worse off.
Instead of saying $20k, you should have said a percentage so it’s easier to gauge. If you’re on $50k, a bump to $70 is huge. If you’re on $250k, just do what you’re asked and it’s realistic that you can get a payrise + $20k after 12 months if you have your head on correctly.
Too hard to know without more details.