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If that is all you guys are getting, start your own company or expect to earn cash doing consulting. Just do the math, if you get 0.3% if a company, then they
by rabble 18y ago
If that is all you guys are getting, start your own company or expect to earn cash doing consulting.
Just do the math, if you get 0.3% if a company, then they do two or three more round devaluing you, you're at 0.1% at best. How much does the company have to sell for you to see a windfall which is more than 1x your annual salary? a LOT. They basically have to public.
Being a second or third tier hire is a bad place to be. Not enough salary to make it worth it, not enough stock to have a windfall (unless you do ipo which isn't happening a lot right now), and huge hours as if you were a co-founder / first employee.
- nostrademons 18y agoDepends where the company is in its lifetime. Basically, it sucks to be an early employee in a startup that does not yet have traction ("product/market fit", in Marc Andreesen's words). You take on most of the risk of a founder yet have nowhere near the reward. And the hours are often founder-like as well, since the company often has no clue what it's doing and so you just keep doing everything until something works or you run out of money. And if you do run out of money (pretty likely), nobody knows or cares about what you did, which can hurt you in your future career. Being an early employee in a startup with traction can be a very nice place to be, though. Many people underestimate both the chances of success once traction's been achieved (high, even if you're not yet profitable) and the potential market size. And you don't have to put up with the uncertainty and risk that the founders did. Most startups with traction don't get sold for $10-50M that's common for a startup with a product and a couple customers, they get sold for $200M+ or they go public for $5B+.