It just goes to show that just because you think you know how to evaluate stock doesn't mean you do. I have a pretty good understanding of dilution, tax implic

It just goes to show that just because you think you know how to evaluate stock doesn't mean you do. I have a pretty good understanding of dilution, tax implications, liquidation preferences and so on. But that 5% of equity issued to employees => equity actually acted issued is shocking to me (I would have guessed 35-40%). A friend once told me: unless you're a founder the right estimate of equity is $0 (By which he meant: be comfortable with an offer in every other aspect, then take equity. If you only have a 1/20 chance of getting your equity I'd say that advice is more true than I initially thought.)