6 ms·

I'd say in my experience, atleast in the Bay Area unless you are a co-founder, dont bother joining an early stage or that's not as late stage as Airbnb or Uber.

I'd say in my experience, atleast in the Bay Area unless you are a co-founder, dont bother joining an early stage or that's not as late stage as Airbnb or Uber. The problem is the base salaries are good. But, startups try to be too stingy with your equity valuing themselves at a pretty high valuation. IMO putting in the hours for someone else and getting almost nothing in return is not worth the effort. Saying this having worked at one of them for ~3 years.

xiphias2 8y ago
Why did you work there for 3 years? Was there any particular reason why you accepted bad terms?
- Hydraulix989 8y ago
  A bunch of possible reasons: - A lot of people don't know what they are actually worth and undervalue themselves - or they do not understand the caveats of things like dilution and classes of stock - or they were offered stock in units of shares without knowing the valuation - or they accept a job and relocate to the Bay Area from a reasonably-affordable place and mistakenly think that a $100k/year salary is hitting the jackpot - or they were persuaded by the founders that the company was going to be a rocketship without fulling knowing how to judge potential in companies or in the personal traits of the founders themselves (we're not all superstar VCs) and then it didn't turn out to be the case but they didn't want to eat the sunk cost with their unvested shares (takeoff was always just ostensibly around the corner!) - or they didn't realize just how much more FAANG actually pays than late-stage startups or even other top-tier companies (even Glassdoor is wrong) - or they preferred to take on more risk without fully understanding the reward aspect (the survivorship bias here in the Bay is real, as enforced by a tough housing market) - or they previously worked for a big company with poor culture and were turned off by it and decided to only work for startups - or they weren't prepped in the art of negotiation - or the founders acted against their employees' best interests and took an early buy-out offer that brought everyone in as acquihires of BigCorp for cheap - or the founders took money off the table for themselves with zero intentions of ever doing anything favorable to the employees that would actually let them to liquidify such as trying to go public or sell the company, while still keeping up the whole carrot-on-stick shtick
  - fuckyah 8y ago
    Like how much?
  - Lich 8y ago
    Damn, 1-3 & 5 apply to me. I need to leave. Now.
  - badfrog 8y ago
    > or they didn't realize just how much more FAANG actually pays than late-stage startups or even other top-tier companies (even Glassdoor is wrong) This is true for a lot of people I talk to. It seems very odd that there's not more compensation transparency from these companies, because I know several people who would have jointed FAANG if they knew what they'd be making 3-5 years into their career.
    - mikeheaton 8y ago
      I’m curious, how much is it then?
      - badfrog 8y ago
        For FB/Google: L3: ~$165k L4: ~$225k L5: ~$335k L6: ~$450k I think Amazon is a little less and Netflix is a little more.
        souprock 8y ago
        Suppose you have a family. Moving the decimal point to account for the cost of housing, L6 is just ~$45k at FB/Google. That is not something to get excited about. Yes, it works out differently if you are happy to rent a garage with a roommate. In that case, the pay only needs to be adjusted by a factor of 2, making the L6 have ~$225k at FB/Google. Enjoy your shared garage.
        badfrog 8y ago
        What's your point? I don't think anybody was commenting on how far those numbers go.
- theshadowmonkey 8y ago
  Sorry for the late reply. - Was a little upset with my previous company over certain things and took the first offer that came my way. And I had to get some immigration stuff done and this company was willing to(Which is really good for me at that moment) and they did it really well. My base was decent. But, looking at equity and the company valuations, I realized I was paid peanuts. When moving out, another company offered to pay me a 10% lower salary and give me 30k options which would amount to 280k per year when they would be worth 500mn. They are currently post-seed, pre series A. Thats a laughable compensation. You can look at how some founders think they can give nothing and still get experienced engineers.

xiphias2 8y ago

Why did you work there for 3 years? Was there any particular reason why you accepted bad terms?

Hydraulix989 8y ago
A bunch of possible reasons: - A lot of people don't know what they are actually worth and undervalue themselves - or they do not understand the caveats of things like dilution and classes of stock - or they were offered stock in units of shares without knowing the valuation - or they accept a job and relocate to the Bay Area from a reasonably-affordable place and mistakenly think that a $100k/year salary is hitting the jackpot - or they were persuaded by the founders that the company was going to be a rocketship without fulling knowing how to judge potential in companies or in the personal traits of the founders themselves (we're not all superstar VCs) and then it didn't turn out to be the case but they didn't want to eat the sunk cost with their unvested shares (takeoff was always just ostensibly around the corner!) - or they didn't realize just how much more FAANG actually pays than late-stage startups or even other top-tier companies (even Glassdoor is wrong) - or they preferred to take on more risk without fully understanding the reward aspect (the survivorship bias here in the Bay is real, as enforced by a tough housing market) - or they previously worked for a big company with poor culture and were turned off by it and decided to only work for startups - or they weren't prepped in the art of negotiation - or the founders acted against their employees' best interests and took an early buy-out offer that brought everyone in as acquihires of BigCorp for cheap - or the founders took money off the table for themselves with zero intentions of ever doing anything favorable to the employees that would actually let them to liquidify such as trying to go public or sell the company, while still keeping up the whole carrot-on-stick shtick
- fuckyah 8y ago
  Like how much?
- Lich 8y ago
  Damn, 1-3 & 5 apply to me. I need to leave. Now.
- badfrog 8y ago
  > or they didn't realize just how much more FAANG actually pays than late-stage startups or even other top-tier companies (even Glassdoor is wrong) This is true for a lot of people I talk to. It seems very odd that there's not more compensation transparency from these companies, because I know several people who would have jointed FAANG if they knew what they'd be making 3-5 years into their career.
  - mikeheaton 8y ago
    I’m curious, how much is it then?
    - badfrog 8y ago
      For FB/Google: L3: ~$165k L4: ~$225k L5: ~$335k L6: ~$450k I think Amazon is a little less and Netflix is a little more.
      - souprock 8y ago
        Suppose you have a family. Moving the decimal point to account for the cost of housing, L6 is just ~$45k at FB/Google. That is not something to get excited about. Yes, it works out differently if you are happy to rent a garage with a roommate. In that case, the pay only needs to be adjusted by a factor of 2, making the L6 have ~$225k at FB/Google. Enjoy your shared garage.
        badfrog 8y ago
        What's your point? I don't think anybody was commenting on how far those numbers go.
theshadowmonkey 8y ago
Sorry for the late reply. - Was a little upset with my previous company over certain things and took the first offer that came my way. And I had to get some immigration stuff done and this company was willing to(Which is really good for me at that moment) and they did it really well. My base was decent. But, looking at equity and the company valuations, I realized I was paid peanuts. When moving out, another company offered to pay me a 10% lower salary and give me 30k options which would amount to 280k per year when they would be worth 500mn. They are currently post-seed, pre series A. Thats a laughable compensation. You can look at how some founders think they can give nothing and still get experienced engineers.