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As an employee, do you have an equity package? If so, are you worried at all that these new unicorn-status investors will have priority pay-out over your equit

As an employee, do you have an equity package? If so, are you worried at all that these new unicorn-status investors will have priority pay-out over your equity if the company doesn't have a $1.5B exit?

ScotterC 8y ago
Not worried at all. Our value of transparency internally extends to this raise as well. Yes employees have equity packages and we're well informed of what the terms of this raise are, the dilution and our leadership team has worked hard to get employee-friendly terms. We believe in this because our team members are the main function for Asana to grow and hit these expectations so it must be a trusting and win-win partnership in order for it to last.
- AWSInGermany 8y ago
  If Asana values transparency internally, then why are employees not told their pay bands as well as given a level such as senior engineer? I know engineers who have left because they could not tell if they had room to grow salary wise. The only way they could find their market rate was by interviewing at other companies.
  - wakamoleguy 8y ago
    Ex-Asana here. Asana has written about the lack of leveled titles in the past[0]. I believe the use of titles is a separate issue to pay transparency. At around the same time, there was an effort to improve the transparency in pay bands. I have since left (for unrelated reasons), and so I cannot definitively speak to whether that was successful. [0] https://blog.asana.com/2017/03/job-titles-asana/ https://blog.asana.com/2017/03/job-titles-asana/
ummonk 8y ago
Was an employee (and am a happy equity-owner in Asana as a result), and I wouldn't be worried about that - I trust the Asana leadership to ensure clean terms with the investment. If anything, I'd worry about the anchoring effect - e.g. if the SaaS valuations decline a year from now so that a prospective Asana IPO wouldn't be worth much more than $1.5B, would that result in them being more reluctant to IPO?
- bduerst 8y ago
  But that's the effect that is plaguing unicorn startups - the ones that have to go IPO or get acquired at less than valuation see the employees getting pennies on the dollar for their equity, while the investors that gave the startup the unicorn status take the bulk of the pay out. Do you know the terms of this latest round of funding? Has senior management confirmed the class of equity?
  - ummonk 8y ago
    I'm not a current employee, and even if I were, I'm not sure that would be something I could disclose. But I can tell you that in the past Asana leadership has been very good about insisting on clean-sheet terms for investor funding.

ScotterC 8y ago

Not worried at all. Our value of transparency internally extends to this raise as well. Yes employees have equity packages and we're well informed of what the terms of this raise are, the dilution and our leadership team has worked hard to get employee-friendly terms. We believe in this because our team members are the main function for Asana to grow and hit these expectations so it must be a trusting and win-win partnership in order for it to last.

AWSInGermany 8y ago
If Asana values transparency internally, then why are employees not told their pay bands as well as given a level such as senior engineer? I know engineers who have left because they could not tell if they had room to grow salary wise. The only way they could find their market rate was by interviewing at other companies.
- wakamoleguy 8y ago
  Ex-Asana here. Asana has written about the lack of leveled titles in the past[0]. I believe the use of titles is a separate issue to pay transparency. At around the same time, there was an effort to improve the transparency in pay bands. I have since left (for unrelated reasons), and so I cannot definitively speak to whether that was successful. [0] https://blog.asana.com/2017/03/job-titles-asana/ https://blog.asana.com/2017/03/job-titles-asana/

ummonk 8y ago

Was an employee (and am a happy equity-owner in Asana as a result), and I wouldn't be worried about that - I trust the Asana leadership to ensure clean terms with the investment. If anything, I'd worry about the anchoring effect - e.g. if the SaaS valuations decline a year from now so that a prospective Asana IPO wouldn't be worth much more than $1.5B, would that result in them being more reluctant to IPO?

bduerst 8y ago
But that's the effect that is plaguing unicorn startups - the ones that have to go IPO or get acquired at less than valuation see the employees getting pennies on the dollar for their equity, while the investors that gave the startup the unicorn status take the bulk of the pay out. Do you know the terms of this latest round of funding? Has senior management confirmed the class of equity?
- ummonk 8y ago
  I'm not a current employee, and even if I were, I'm not sure that would be something I could disclose. But I can tell you that in the past Asana leadership has been very good about insisting on clean-sheet terms for investor funding.