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None at first. I was hired by a client after the dev shop I worked for went under. We were so inexperienced/grateful for the job we didn’t think to ask for any

None at first. I was hired by a client after the dev shop I worked for went under. We were so inexperienced/grateful for the job we didn’t think to ask for any equity. The salary is just below market average, which is fair considering my experience level. Some background: this is my first startup, we’re a team of 5 (CEO, Android, iOS, Web/CTO, Customer support). 6 months after we were hired the runway began to get tight and we had to take some semi-drastic measures to stretch it: the CEO (who hadn’t been taking a salary for quite some time) asked us to stay on but work half-time until we were far enough along to raise the correct amount of funding. Because I believe in both the mission and the CEO I offered to stay on full-time for half-pay and half-equity. For the past 5 months half of my salary has been converted into shares. Instant vesting, shares are being given at our current valuation. Each month translates to roughly 0.1% of the company.

matt_the_bass 8y ago
Lots of people will give you opinions of should you ask for more. My opinion is you should ask for what you think is fair. If you think the current split is fair, then you don’t need to ask for more. Keep in mind that most cases equity turn out to have little monetary value.
captain_perl 8y ago
> I offered to stay on full-time for half-pay and half-equity. There's a lot of red flags here ... some random advice: 1) Ensure your deal is in writing. 2) To protect your equity, you need to be in the room when new investments are negotiated. Otherwise you will be diluted or new options pools created without you even knowing. 3) Business people think very little of programmers in general, until they need to hire one. To them, you're a secretary with an attitude. 4) a product launch costs about $1 million. If they have money for that, then they can also pay your salary 5) It's irrelevant to you whether the CEO is taking a salary or not. Unless you have access to the books, how do you even know? It seems that generally CEOs land on their feet. 6) The shares you think they gave you "clutter up the cap table" and make it more difficult to get investors later. Typically VCs try to wipe out the angel investors (who have lawyers.) Guess what they'll do to a programmer.
- acct1771 8y ago
  Reminder that being in the room doesn't mean anything if the people in the room aren't legally beholden to you.
  - balladeer 8y ago
    So let's say I am hired by a startup and I am getting half the industry salary rate for my role. What kind of "stock/share/esop/options" I should ask for that changes like a founder's would? Of course it will be a lot less than the founder's (and it will be fulfilled in stages) but iff, let's assume, I want to get that "kind" of "share" of that startup what it would be? Is there a specific term for it? Or it varies from company to company? Unless it it's public where's it's the "share", right? edit: any recommended reading on this?

matt_the_bass 8y ago

Lots of people will give you opinions of should you ask for more. My opinion is you should ask for what you think is fair. If you think the current split is fair, then you don’t need to ask for more. Keep in mind that most cases equity turn out to have little monetary value.

captain_perl 8y ago

> I offered to stay on full-time for half-pay and half-equity. There's a lot of red flags here ... some random advice: 1) Ensure your deal is in writing. 2) To protect your equity, you need to be in the room when new investments are negotiated. Otherwise you will be diluted or new options pools created without you even knowing. 3) Business people think very little of programmers in general, until they need to hire one. To them, you're a secretary with an attitude. 4) a product launch costs about $1 million. If they have money for that, then they can also pay your salary 5) It's irrelevant to you whether the CEO is taking a salary or not. Unless you have access to the books, how do you even know? It seems that generally CEOs land on their feet. 6) The shares you think they gave you "clutter up the cap table" and make it more difficult to get investors later. Typically VCs try to wipe out the angel investors (who have lawyers.) Guess what they'll do to a programmer.

acct1771 8y ago
Reminder that being in the room doesn't mean anything if the people in the room aren't legally beholden to you.
- balladeer 8y ago
  So let's say I am hired by a startup and I am getting half the industry salary rate for my role. What kind of "stock/share/esop/options" I should ask for that changes like a founder's would? Of course it will be a lot less than the founder's (and it will be fulfilled in stages) but iff, let's assume, I want to get that "kind" of "share" of that startup what it would be? Is there a specific term for it? Or it varies from company to company? Unless it it's public where's it's the "share", right? edit: any recommended reading on this?