4 ms·
Wow. That really tanked my opinion of github. I had been talking to various officials in leadership for a few months hammering out the details and had
by x0x0 10y ago
Wow. That really tanked my opinion of github.
I had been talking to various officials in leadership for a few months
hammering out the details and had been under the impression that we had
reached an agreement, but I was surprised to find out that wasn’t the case.
I was informed 28 hours before my 90 day window closed that the agreement I
had thought I had didn’t exist; it was then that I realized I had 28 hours
to either come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars that I didn’t have
to save half of my stock, or I could sign the agreement as-is and avoid
losing half of my already-diminished stake. I opted to sign.
[...]
But I still haven’t found the next thing I’m really interested in, which
just feeds into the whole cycle some more. For better or worse, that’ll be
changing pretty quickly, since I’m pretty broke after working part-time and
living in San Francisco for so long. Even though I helped move a company’s
valuation almost two billion dollars, I haven’t made a dime from the company
outside of making a pretty below-to-average salary. That’s after six years.
Think on that, kids, when you’re busting your ass day and night to strike it
rich with your startup dreams.
I've read on here about Etsy similarly fucking employees who left.
Those options are worth a lot less than you think they are. One of the wonders of cash is it's very hard for companies to retroactively steal it back.
If you're going to a company that gives options, demand either an 83b or iso to nso flip / 10 year exercise window.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hkmurakami 10y ago>demand either an 83b What you actually need to ask for in this case is RSUs (vs options). The 83b election is something you independently file with the IRS. (you may need a letter from the company for proof, but they'll have drafts of those already that they've used for the founders -- speaking from experience as the person who set this up for our company) However, RSUs only make sense in the seed stage. Past A round, the 10 year exercise window or an early exercise clause of ISOs into RSUs might make sense depending on the numbers, but likely not.
- abalone 10y agoCan you explain why RSUs are better than ISOs that convert to NSOs on departure?
- hkmurakami 10y agolong term capital gains. "Which one is better" depends on many factors including stage of company, risk tolerance of individual, legal precedence, marginal tax rates, outside wealth, etc.
- x0x0 10y agoThe benefit of iso->nso flips is, afaik, it's way cheaper than rsus for the employer and it gives the employee the ability to wait until you're in the money before exercising
- hkmurakami 10y agoYes it is definitely a tradeoff for the employee. For the employer, the cost of issuing RSUs I believe is tied with the fact that there would be no chance that the employee let go of their shares via not exercising their options (I do not believe RSUs are subject to employment tax). But if you have 10 year exercise periods, that accomplishes the same thing for the employer's perspective. The difference them becomes the tradeoff for the employee between optionality and a possibly lower tax rate.
- rubyfan 10y agoPeople need to realize options are just options and stop treating them like they are money in the bank. The company gives them to you to keep your talented ass there. The thing about options is they are a speculative discount on you buying something of potentially high value from them.