61–70 of 222 posts
I don't know I would take a 50K reduction in salary as well additional benefits to go to a startup.
Call me crazy, but I think people should not be compensated better because they're good negotiators.
Learning about salary/equity disparity can be very demoralizing, spreading bad team chemistry like a virus. This is especially true in cases where people who happen to be good negotiators earned more money than the workhorses who provided some of the biggest benefits to the company.
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Did you miss the rent subsidy part? It was listed at $12K, so $1K/month. But lets step back from that for a moment. $70K gross income. Lets say you put $2K into an IRA (no 401k) so $68K after that. Estimated federal tax is $10,592 [1], Another 6.2% goes to Social security so $4,340 [2], estimated state income tax (CA) is about $3,922 so rolling that up, $68K - $18,854 in taxes thats not quite $50K left over ($49,146)…
While I agree with your sentiment about frugal living, in the spirit of being realitic, $500 a month for food is awfully low. At 3 meals a day, that's $5 a meal. No easy feat unless you go for processed, preserved and packaged, which is hardly a good way to live and eat.
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Honestly, I missed the rent subsidy part which makes it a bit easier. Still, thanks for the breakdown! I guess I waste a lot of money or something because I somehow manage to spend a lot more here! Although saying that, I prefer to put a lot more away towards savings and retirement and like to travel a lot too.
This. Frictionless spending is your enemy. Oh that is a great book, click click click, $10 just whooshed out of your wallet into your kindle. There are so many good movies out this summer, blam blam blam another $50 - $60 GONE. Oh god I can't start my day without some caffiene pick up a vente latte half and half for me would you? Another $6 gone. It goes on and on. And it adds up.
I started using mint.com to track my spending and the main issue in SF is rent. Followed closely by food costs. I was living in the mid-west briefly, earning only a few $K less than here yet saved so much more money and never had to worry about the minor spending adding up.
Rent subsidy makes no sense to me. It's a fully taxable fringe benefit (at least in the US, if it's not for the benefit of the employer like at a mine), and basically the same as salary, but people don't include it in the salary calculation. It's just stupid for the employer to offer it instead of the same amount of extra income.
Given that, it seems like the most straight-forward way this "rent subsidy" is working is that Keen is paying for the house where they live/work out of company money, and that's probably where the different category comes from, at least conceptually. (apologies for assuming if that's not correct)
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It's pretty common to subsidize employee equity because employees having equity are incented to work, and because common generally is discounted to preferred by a larger factor very early in the formation of the company. It's reasonable to simultaneously treat employee equity as $2mm valuation and investor equity at $5mm valuation, especially with a note. In this case, though, I think the way to win the negotiation i…
I think that 50k/1% should be considered only as a 'hobby occupation'. Or, if one is trying to change a field of work. Because this early employee 1% is a) going to get diluted; b) it is over 4 years; c) most likely will result in $0 - $5000 cash-wise. And 50k (without benefits I assume) is.. well nothing.
Also, I'd love to take $50k/yr + 1% equity in an already successful startup. Say, Facebook.
Even better idea: Do the same but invest it into your own company. Keep 99% and convince someone else to take 1% + pocket change to work for you for a few years.
Some great advice I got when someone comes back to you and says "We'll give you 16,000 shares" is essentially to ask "shares of what?" One of the best questions to ask is "What percentage of the total outstanding shares does this represent?" Since 16,000 shares could be out of 100K, 1M, etc.
Call me crazy, but I think people should not be compensated better because they're good negotiators.
I went from an established company that offered an awesome family PPO plan ($0 monthly premiums, 95/5 coverage, $750 family deductible, paid vision/dental) to a startup that offers a way worse one: ($780 monthly premiums, 90/10 coverage, $3000 family deductible, no vision/dental).
You can list "Health care! Woo!" on both sides of that offer, but I bet it's way more detailed than that or completely missed in the equation altogether. My personal difference in line items is over $14,000 annually.