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Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

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Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#311

Post by notimetorelax »

xvector wrote: post #301
karmasimida wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not contracting. Let’s do a simple math. Assume this employee gets 5% of the company (which is super unlikely, but let’s go with it), that is 150m for what could be worth if OpenAI deal went through. 1% of that would be 1.5m. That is still 7 figure. But this person spent 3 years in a startup, which turned out to be a unicorn and super highly successful, and he bagged a FAANG salary man pay at the end of the deal. Bas…

It's bizarre to see tech bros, YC, and megacorporations kill the startup talent pipeline that they rely on so much. Who is gonna want to work at a startup in a non-founder role after this and Scale AI? This continuing degradation of, and flagrant disregard for social norms is destructive for society.

Young engineers who don’t know how this works yet.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#312

Post by Retric »

johann8384 wrote: post #285
kstrauser wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could spend half that in the heart of SF and have a nice place in a decent neighborhood: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1265-Union-St-San-Francis... It's not that it's cheap here, not by any measure, but it's not nearly so dire as y'all want to claim.

With $3MM you could just stop working and live in many other nice enough places without ever having to work again.

3% of 3 million is 90k which sounds better than it actually is as you need to pay for health insurance.

Plenty of people live in any city with less than that, but it is below the average income in many nice counties in the US.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#313

Post by justinclift »

Retric wrote: post #312
johann8384 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With $3MM you could just stop working and live in many other nice enough places without ever having to work again.

3% of 3 million is 90k which sounds better than it actually is as you need to pay for health insurance. Plenty of people live in any city with less than that, but it is below the average income in many nice counties in the US.

[flagged]

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#314

Post by conductr »

johann8384 wrote: post #285
kstrauser wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could spend half that in the heart of SF and have a nice place in a decent neighborhood: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1265-Union-St-San-Francis... It's not that it's cheap here, not by any measure, but it's not nearly so dire as y'all want to claim.

With $3MM you could just stop working and live in many other nice enough places without ever having to work again.

Except you’re a wage slave and your American Nightmare comes with a mortgage, your sizable interest payments are likely funding the retirement income of a boomer too (along with bankers too, they always get a cut)

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#315

Post by stouset »

socalgal2 wrote: post #302
stouset wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own one unit in a 2-unit condo built in the 1910s in SF. It’s pretty fucking dreamy if you ask me.

different strokes for different folks. I can't fucking stand hearing every breath of every neighbor in a 100yr old SF house and having to tiptoe at all times so as not to upset the other tenents

I am almost never aware of my upstairs neighbors, through two pairs of them, including a dog and a baby.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#316

Post by School-Cotton »

busterarm wrote: post #303
drmath wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've tried to ask dozens of companies that wanted to hire me just for how many shares were outstanding and/or authorized. "Wanted to hire me" as in they made an offer, or an earlier step? At offer stage, I've never had a company refuse to answer these questions. I don't have "dozens of companies" worth of experience though, maybe one dozen if that.

Every time I hear this I think experiences and expectations are vastly different between SV and the rest of the country. 30ish years of working in New York and I haven't encountered a single company that isn't 100% opaque about their equity to employees until time of exit/IPO. And I keep a large network. That said, everyone here treats equity of non-public companies as if it's toilet paper. Some of my coworkers got v…

I worked at one for five years: Materialize. Based in NYC. Everyone knew how many shares they owned, what percentage of the total equity that represented, and what the rights of the preferred share classes were.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#317

Post by tlogan »

When joining a startup, the most important factor isn’t the idea, product, or the VCs: it’s the founder(s).

Think like an investor. Would you back this person? Are they ethical? Are they resilient?

Also stock options should not be high on the list. Most startups fail before founders or VCs even get the chance to screw you over. In 99% of cases, nobody wins.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#318

Post by iblaine »

Having been aquihired three times by FAANG+, the biggest take away is have accelerated vesting. To do that you got be lucky or in the C-suite. Being bought out usually sounds better then reality for everyone but a few that get that accelerated vesting clause.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#319

Post by Retric »

justinclift wrote: post #313
Retric wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3% of 3 million is 90k which sounds better than it actually is as you need to pay for health insurance. Plenty of people live in any city with less than that, but it is below the average income in many nice counties in the US.

[flagged]

You pay for health insurance in every single county, either directly or through higher taxes.

Re: Windsurf employee #2: I was given a payout of only 1% what my shares where worth

#320

Post by mikefreeman »

TrackerFF wrote: post #7

Financially speaking, is it even worth joining a startup anymore? Compared to just going to any of the big companies. The latter will likely pay you more, with less risk involved. Seems like the best shot is to strive toward becoming financially independent, and then just go for the startup route and follow your passion. If you it doesn't work out, no big deal - if things turn out great, you'll just be even better of…

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