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I’m sorry but I don’t buy it. Startups employees are squeezed out by vc dilution and lack of big exits. Those $1m total equity cash out from startups I fear are

I’m sorry but I don’t buy it. Startups employees are squeezed out by vc dilution and lack of big exits. Those $1m total equity cash out from startups I fear are fairly rare. Whereas working for faang type companies, a l5 is more or less guaranteed to make $300k a year. $500-750k is doable without being a “brand name”. Timing and luck, but the spread is much smaller. Startup founders have made a devils deal with vcs to underpay employees. You know it. Unless you issued preferred stock to all employees?

coaxial 8y ago
It looks like you both agree, they said you should not work at an early stage startup.
kwindla 8y ago
Maybe a devil's deal, but not with the goal of under-paying employees. I know very few founders who have the highest salary at their own company, which is as it should be. Founders of VC-backed companies are making an explicity equity-vs-salary trade-off. And every founder I know would love to pay employees more. The challenge is that taking VC money is a commitment to try to figure out how to grow relatively quickly. There are never enough resources to try all the things you wish you could, on the way to product-market fit. It's perfectly reasonable to criticize this model, but it's not a model that is intended to negatively impact early stage employees. Hence the discussion in this thread, much of which is about how the economic context in the SF Bay Area employee market has changed, and how to adapt. Look at this another way: employees at early stage boot-strapping tech startups generally make less money than employees of early stage VC-backed startups.
- qaq 8y ago
  It's marketing BS of selling dreams to both Entrepreneurs and in turn to employees that keeps the boll rolling for VCs. If you are honest you will realize that it's def. designed to take advantage of employees.

coaxial 8y ago

It looks like you both agree, they said you should not work at an early stage startup.

kwindla 8y ago

Maybe a devil's deal, but not with the goal of under-paying employees. I know very few founders who have the highest salary at their own company, which is as it should be. Founders of VC-backed companies are making an explicity equity-vs-salary trade-off. And every founder I know would love to pay employees more. The challenge is that taking VC money is a commitment to try to figure out how to grow relatively quickly. There are never enough resources to try all the things you wish you could, on the way to product-market fit. It's perfectly reasonable to criticize this model, but it's not a model that is intended to negatively impact early stage employees. Hence the discussion in this thread, much of which is about how the economic context in the SF Bay Area employee market has changed, and how to adapt. Look at this another way: employees at early stage boot-strapping tech startups generally make less money than employees of early stage VC-backed startups.

qaq 8y ago
It's marketing BS of selling dreams to both Entrepreneurs and in turn to employees that keeps the boll rolling for VCs. If you are honest you will realize that it's def. designed to take advantage of employees.