71–80 of 213 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but that's if I were to sell it after ~1 year at a company you've likely never heard of. If I wait 3 more and there's a large exit it could easily be worth millions.
Do you have a convenient way to sell your startup equity after ~1 year? (i.e. before there's an exit)
The company I work for is about to get major investment and they are transitioning from an LLC. Only the 3 founders have equity currently. As engineers we have no idea how much to ask for. Because we have already been working without equity. How do we account for the years we've worked? Or that our salaries aren't that great right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely disagree. It's really not hard to find a company with great product market fit, say series B, get a bunch of equity, a decent salary, and wait a couple years for your equity to be valuable. Assuming the company is successful (of course there's risk there, but by series B a lot has been mitigated), your equity will likely be quite valuable. I actually think, risk adjusted, that's the easiest way to make a…
> Joining a series B startup and waiting a couple years is the easiest, risk adjusted way to make a bunch of money. Sorry, what?
Imagine what kind of stock investments you'd make if you were only allowed to invest in one stock at a time.
Let's say 10% of start-ups succeed to the point where employee 100 makes "a bunch of money", which I think is very generous. You would need to join 10 of these start-ups throughout your career (and of course remain at each for the 3-5 years it takes to learn if the lottery ticket pays off) to have an expectation of one case where you end up that bunch of money.
So yea. Risk adjusted. While the EV might look good, the variance makes it a losing game.
Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all. The expected value of working at an early startup gets overestimated, by a lot. If you're optimizing your career, either make the most you can at an established company, or start a startup. Or... work at an enlightened startup, th…
"Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all." Not worth it financially, considering opportunity cost of not working somewhere that pays more. Just pointing out that there could be other non-financial benefits from working at a startup, that might make it worth it. Everythin…
While I'm a little disappointed in my pay, I get a ridiculously flexible schedule, work from home whenever I feel like it, I put in some extra work last weekend so my boss just told me to take tomorrow off (which is a common occurrence), the work I'm doing is 5x as interesting and I get to try my hand at a breadth of tasks. I also ended up getting a fantastic title after 6ish months as I was hired in under a pseudo title and they had the mentality of "show us what you can do." There's always new/more difficult tasks I can jump in on when I'm ready.
My other two offers did not have flexible schedules, one had no work from home and the other allowed it sometimes. They were both clearly defined roles, despite my interviewers telling me about all the cool projects I "might" get to do l've learned to never consider any "mights."
I think I'm another year or two my pay will be higher and I will have a more interesting career than if I had chosen one of the ther offers.
I don't expect to get anything from this startup other than experience and a paycheck. And the experience definitely makes up for the lower pay.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all." Not worth it financially, considering opportunity cost of not working somewhere that pays more. Just pointing out that there could be other non-financial benefits from working at a startup, that might make it worth it. Everythin…
I'm at a startup now. When I was looking for a job last year, I had 3 offers and this startup was the lowest in terms of compensation and while the other two offers were higher they were with large corporations. While I'm a little disappointed in my pay, I get a ridiculously flexible schedule, work from home whenever I feel like it, I put in some extra work last weekend so my boss just told me to take tomorrow off (w…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all." Not worth it financially, considering opportunity cost of not working somewhere that pays more. Just pointing out that there could be other non-financial benefits from working at a startup, that might make it worth it. Everythin…
I'm at a startup now. When I was looking for a job last year, I had 3 offers and this startup was the lowest in terms of compensation and while the other two offers were higher they were with large corporations. While I'm a little disappointed in my pay, I get a ridiculously flexible schedule, work from home whenever I feel like it, I put in some extra work last weekend so my boss just told me to take tomorrow off (w…
Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all. The expected value of working at an early startup gets overestimated, by a lot. If you're optimizing your career, either make the most you can at an established company, or start a startup. Or... work at an enlightened startup, th…
Oh and you had zero chance of losing any money and you can take share save money tax free
I joined Zenefits when everyone had dollar signs in their eyes. It felt like the roaring 20s (or at least the accounts I've heard of them).
How are they doing nowadays?
I always say don't compromise on salary for equity. Compromise for the experience, for an entrance into the field, because the chick at the counter was digging you, but not because of some payout you think you'll get in the future.
Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all. The expected value of working at an early startup gets overestimated, by a lot. If you're optimizing your career, either make the most you can at an established company, or start a startup. Or... work at an enlightened startup, th…
I completely disagree. It's really not hard to find a company with great product market fit, say series B, get a bunch of equity, a decent salary, and wait a couple years for your equity to be valuable. Assuming the company is successful (of course there's risk there, but by series B a lot has been mitigated), your equity will likely be quite valuable. I actually think, risk adjusted, that's the easiest way to make a…
Yep, IMO unless you are a founder, if your company isn't one of the top companies of the decade your 4-6 years of pay-cut toil as an early employee will likely just not be worth it, at all. The expected value of working at an early startup gets overestimated, by a lot. If you're optimizing your career, either make the most you can at an established company, or start a startup. Or... work at an enlightened startup, th…
I completely disagree. It's really not hard to find a company with great product market fit, say series B, get a bunch of equity, a decent salary, and wait a couple years for your equity to be valuable. Assuming the company is successful (of course there's risk there, but by series B a lot has been mitigated), your equity will likely be quite valuable. I actually think, risk adjusted, that's the easiest way to make a…
Or, the fact that a series B is needed is indicative that there was more risk than anticipated. Series B is not always good news (in general it is though, but there is still plenty of risk at that stage). So always verify what the reason for a funding round was and make sure that it was an 'up' round rather than a 'down' round.