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> Any companies that offer ISOs without at least a ten year exercise window is just spitting in your face I would love to do it at my company. I've reached ou

by cj 6y ago

> Any companies that offer ISOs without at least a ten year exercise window is just spitting in your face I would love to do it at my company. I've reached out to our lawyers a couple years ago to set it up, and our lawyers strongly pressured us to stick with standard terms (3 months), because from the legal side, things get messy with long excercise windows (I don't remember the exact issues, but could probably dig them up). A simple solution is to not include stock options in how you value your comp package when going to work at a small company. As a founder, I offer stock options when I make job offers, but we never hype it up as if they are guaranteed to be worth anything in the near term. I sometimes tell candidates straight out "you can look at them like lottery tickets". I would absolutely not hire someone if they say something like "The salary is too low, but that's ok, the stock options will make up for it" - I would immediately correct them and educate them on how stock options work and the inherent risk so they can make an informed decision. There are definitely other founders who hype the value of stock options. When that happens, it's not OK and I see where your frustration is coming from. But not all founders are evil people trying to spit in your face.

dmitrygr 6y ago
> I would immediately > correct them and educate > them on how stock options > work and the inherent risk > so they can make an > informed decision. The world needs more heroes like you.
akavi 6y ago
> A simple solution is to not include stock options in how you value your comp package when going to work at a small company. At face value, that's saying a senior engineer in bay area should be willing to take a ~150 - 200 k$/yr pay cut to work at a start up. And in my experience, people who say that never take me up on my offer to buy their equity from that at valuations significantly higher than 0 $. Having spent a decent chunk of my career at startups, I think a better mindset is: 1) Never value your options as if they were worth the preferred price, but at a significant discount (exact discount size depends on company and stage) 2) Approach working at a startup like the financial investment it is. Ask for all the data on growth and revenue you can get (Last fundraising round's pitch deck is good, if it was fairly recent).

by cj 6y ago

dmitrygr 6y ago

> I would immediately > correct them and educate > them on how stock options > work and the inherent risk > so they can make an > informed decision. The world needs more heroes like you.

akavi 6y ago

> A simple solution is to not include stock options in how you value your comp package when going to work at a small company. At face value, that's saying a senior engineer in bay area should be willing to take a ~150 - 200 k$/yr pay cut to work at a start up. And in my experience, people who say that never take me up on my offer to buy their equity from that at valuations significantly higher than 0 $. Having spent a decent chunk of my career at startups, I think a better mindset is: 1) Never value your options as if they were worth the preferred price, but at a significant discount (exact discount size depends on company and stage) 2) Approach working at a startup like the financial investment it is. Ask for all the data on growth and revenue you can get (Last fundraising round's pitch deck is good, if it was fairly recent).