4 ms·

If you're interested in seeing financial returns for your time/work, don't work as a startup employee, ever.

by deanmoriarty 7y ago

ambivalents 7y ago
Could you elaborate? Seems like this is heavily dependent on the success of the startup and at which stage you joined.
- mav3rick 7y ago
  The probability for this is extremely low.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  Which is essentially a crapshoot, since there is no way to truly predict which will turn into a unicorn and which one will take 5 years of your life and leave you with worthless options. Ye old game of High Risk vs High Reward.
- deanmoriarty 7y ago
  Replied above
AndrewHayes 7y ago
How about, don't work as an undercompensated startup employee who is relying on shares to become valuable. You can have incredibly rewarding jobs both personally and financially working for a startup.
- deanmoriarty 7y ago
  I would love to hear more about your experience. In my experience, no startup comes close to the pay of a big and healthy tech company. Specifically, even if you get the startup to match the base salary of the big company (which is almost always not true and comes at a 20-30% discount, but I'm willing to assume that it can be done), the equity that the startup will give you is effectively $0, whereas the public RSU the big company will give you are basically cash-equivalent (if you are really conservative you can adjust them by 20-30%?). This last point is the major one for me: at least in the Bay Area, senior software engineers are offered equity grants that are effectively the same size of their salary every year, so by going to a startup you are immediately being paid at least half.
bakuninsbart 7y ago
Friend gave up probably one of the best tech jobs in the world because it was too boring. The company is owned by a foundation, so they think very long-term and have their employees welfare as one of the highest priorities. Well, for him that was too good a deal, so now he's working 60 hours for half the salary.

If you're interested in seeing financial returns for your time/work, don't work as a startup employee, ever.

ambivalents 7y ago

Could you elaborate? Seems like this is heavily dependent on the success of the startup and at which stage you joined.

mav3rick 7y ago
The probability for this is extremely low.
blaser-waffle 7y ago
Which is essentially a crapshoot, since there is no way to truly predict which will turn into a unicorn and which one will take 5 years of your life and leave you with worthless options. Ye old game of High Risk vs High Reward.
deanmoriarty 7y ago
Replied above

AndrewHayes 7y ago

How about, don't work as an undercompensated startup employee who is relying on shares to become valuable. You can have incredibly rewarding jobs both personally and financially working for a startup.

deanmoriarty 7y ago
I would love to hear more about your experience. In my experience, no startup comes close to the pay of a big and healthy tech company. Specifically, even if you get the startup to match the base salary of the big company (which is almost always not true and comes at a 20-30% discount, but I'm willing to assume that it can be done), the equity that the startup will give you is effectively $0, whereas the public RSU the big company will give you are basically cash-equivalent (if you are really conservative you can adjust them by 20-30%?). This last point is the major one for me: at least in the Bay Area, senior software engineers are offered equity grants that are effectively the same size of their salary every year, so by going to a startup you are immediately being paid at least half.

bakuninsbart 7y ago

Friend gave up probably one of the best tech jobs in the world because it was too boring. The company is owned by a foundation, so they think very long-term and have their employees welfare as one of the highest priorities. Well, for him that was too good a deal, so now he's working 60 hours for half the salary.