4 ms·
Seems easier to just assume the stock option has no value, especially given failure rates. I feel most people will overestimate their chances of success which
by crazypyro 8y ago
Seems easier to just assume the stock option has no value, especially given failure rates.
I feel most people will overestimate their chances of success which will give them an unrealistic number.
- mykowebhn 8y agoThis. I tend to look at stock options at an early-stage startup as a lottery ticket.
- linuxftw 8y agoWorse than a lotto ticket. A lotto ticket doesn't make you accept below-market wages and has fixed amount winnings that won't be diluted.
- roguecoder 8y agoLottery tickets cost you money up front and have a defined possible upside. Neither of those is true of equity. The uncertainty of startup equity makes it impossible to do the same probable value calculations you can do on lottery tickets.
- ryandrake 8y agoOptions are worse because they cost you money year after year: the difference in salary you could have made instead of taking a job that offered those options in lieu of a market salary. If im offered a job that comes with options but pays $1000/yr less than I’m making now, I have to ask myself: why not just keep my current job and spend that $1000/yr on an investment with similar risk/reward profile? If I’m willing to do that then I should just keep my job and buy that investment. If I’m not willing to do that, than I shouldn’t take the job, because that’s in essence what it would mean. In either case I shouldn’t take the job.