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FWIW my Airbnb stock was worth about $1mm/year when I joined (in 2013 as a IC SWE). To be fair, the starting salary was well below market, but I got a raise to

FWIW my Airbnb stock was worth about $1mm/year when I joined (in 2013 as a IC SWE). To be fair, the starting salary was well below market, but I got a raise to bring it up to the market rate about 1 year in. I've since never seen a startup that generous, only FAANGs come close.

dang 7y ago
That's super interesting, but Airbnb in 2013 was long past the seed stage, and when we talk about early engineers that's what we mean, no? Those are the startups that have the chicken/egg problem with hiring. Not that it's a minor point if Airbnb was that far ahead in employee compensation.
paulgb 7y ago
They gave you stock rather than options? Is that usual at that stage? Any offer I've seen from a startup (admittedly a small sample size, and always later stage) has been options rather than stock, and I've never heard of a company providing enough information to actually value the options.
- brenden2 7y ago
  To clarify, I was granted options, although they did switch to RSUs later on.
  - paulgb 7y ago
    Ah, thanks for the clarification. So they became worth $1mm/year, that wasn't the fair market value when they were granted?
    - brenden2 7y ago
      I was granted 36,000 shares (or options to buy shares), vesting over 4 years, with a strike price near $4. IIRC, preferred share price was ~$120 in 2015, but I don't recall the precise details. AFAIK there were no refreshers of any kind while I was there. I think the amount I got was pretty standard for an engineer, but I also know some engineers received 4 or 5 times as much, and others got half that. I think the recruiters had a lot of discretion to decide how much to hand out in order to hire great people.
      - paulgb 7y ago
        Gotcha. I appreciate the transparency, I'm always curious about how these early-hire packages work!
      - yibg 7y ago
        According to this article the common shares were worth ~$120 in 2019. Preferred will be different from common, but this would mean the investors saw no gains from 2015 to 2019. Either some info is incorrect somewhere, or there was some split or valuation indeed didn't change much in 4 years. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18272274/airbnb-valuation-common-stock-hoteltonight https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18272274/airbnb-valuation-comm...

dang 7y ago

That's super interesting, but Airbnb in 2013 was long past the seed stage, and when we talk about early engineers that's what we mean, no? Those are the startups that have the chicken/egg problem with hiring. Not that it's a minor point if Airbnb was that far ahead in employee compensation.

paulgb 7y ago

They gave you stock rather than options? Is that usual at that stage? Any offer I've seen from a startup (admittedly a small sample size, and always later stage) has been options rather than stock, and I've never heard of a company providing enough information to actually value the options.

brenden2 7y ago
To clarify, I was granted options, although they did switch to RSUs later on.
- paulgb 7y ago
  Ah, thanks for the clarification. So they became worth $1mm/year, that wasn't the fair market value when they were granted?
  - brenden2 7y ago
    I was granted 36,000 shares (or options to buy shares), vesting over 4 years, with a strike price near $4. IIRC, preferred share price was ~$120 in 2015, but I don't recall the precise details. AFAIK there were no refreshers of any kind while I was there. I think the amount I got was pretty standard for an engineer, but I also know some engineers received 4 or 5 times as much, and others got half that. I think the recruiters had a lot of discretion to decide how much to hand out in order to hire great people.
    - paulgb 7y ago
      Gotcha. I appreciate the transparency, I'm always curious about how these early-hire packages work!
    - yibg 7y ago
      According to this article the common shares were worth ~$120 in 2019. Preferred will be different from common, but this would mean the investors saw no gains from 2015 to 2019. Either some info is incorrect somewhere, or there was some split or valuation indeed didn't change much in 4 years. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18272274/airbnb-valuation-common-stock-hoteltonight https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18272274/airbnb-valuation-comm...