I tell everyone that seeks my advice on this subject - options are basically lottery tickets, so don't lever your salary up and down based on what option packag

I tell everyone that seeks my advice on this subject - options are basically lottery tickets, so don't lever your salary up and down based on what option packages the company might present to you. From a startup's perspective, I've seen this happen all of the time "take $10k less and you'll get 5 BPS!". For a financial computational analysis of why this never really works out in the aggregate, I basically just send them this: https://danluu.com/startup-options/ https://danluu.com/startup-options/ > At this point I feel like anyone who chooses stock options over cash is naive, delusional, or misled. People consistently make irrational decisions with money all of the time. The reality for many people is taking the stock option route makes them emotionally more vested in the success in the company. Companies know this and regularly exploit it. Lastly - it is OK to join a startup early on to "mint" yourself professionally (e.g. "I was employee #4 at Google" or "I was employee #4 at a company that was bought by Google"). People's eyes perk up (in the Valley especially) because they assume that because you were an early employee you were more likely to contribute to the successful exit of the company. Thus, "minting" yourself in the job market. Whether that's true or not in reality is another point...