4 ms·

This is the other unseen cost of being in a bubble. All the best talent gets tied up in lame duck me-too companies, and makes it impossible to hire people for t

by axiom 15y ago

This is the other unseen cost of being in a bubble. All the best talent gets tied up in lame duck me-too companies, and makes it impossible to hire people for the good companies.

psychotik 15y ago
Doesn't the fact that the talented engineer picked a lame-duck company cause him/her to lose points? A good engineer should be equally good at making big bets, especially when it comes to picking a company he/she wants to work for.
- axiom 15y ago
  Nah, I don't think so. When a company like Color (and honestly I don't know that Color is a lame duck, I'm just using them as an example) has $40 million to burn they can afford to pay a kid right out of school $150k/yr + $1M in equity. Most startups can't, even if they are totally viable high quality businesses. So in a non-frothy market those good quality companies would be able to find talent - but in this kind of market it's borderline impossible unless you're a super-hyped rock star startup. Anyway, I'm probably just jaded because it's been so insanely hard to hire lately (compared to ~1 year ago.)
  - joncooper 15y ago
    Do you know it to be the case that Color has paid a kid just out of school $150k + $1M in equity? When I was trying to hire Rails & front-end folks recently I was seeing the market around $100 - $130k for reasonably experienced people, and had success hiring in that context. $150k for someone out of school seems unlikely to me. Re: Color - I assume they raised their $40mm at something like $100mm post-money, which would mean a 1% option grant. That strikes me as far outside the norm for any engineer that isn't a core part of the team.
- Retric 15y ago
  Working for a well funded lame-duck company can be more profitable than most startups. Pulling some numbers from thin air: Conciser the breakeven point on 180K for 5 years vs 100K for 5 years? Well, 80K * 5 = 1/4 million + some interest. But what do you compare that to? let's assume it's been funded and you are getting .1% of the company. Well breakeven is now a ~250 million sale but what are your chances of hitting a 250+ million sale? PS: This is on the extreme end, but it just goes to show you that trading significant amounts of income for stock in funded companies is rarely worth it.

by axiom 15y ago

This is the other unseen cost of being in a bubble. All the best talent gets tied up in lame duck me-too companies, and makes it impossible to hire people for the good companies.

psychotik 15y ago

Doesn't the fact that the talented engineer picked a lame-duck company cause him/her to lose points? A good engineer should be equally good at making big bets, especially when it comes to picking a company he/she wants to work for.

axiom 15y ago
Nah, I don't think so. When a company like Color (and honestly I don't know that Color is a lame duck, I'm just using them as an example) has $40 million to burn they can afford to pay a kid right out of school $150k/yr + $1M in equity. Most startups can't, even if they are totally viable high quality businesses. So in a non-frothy market those good quality companies would be able to find talent - but in this kind of market it's borderline impossible unless you're a super-hyped rock star startup. Anyway, I'm probably just jaded because it's been so insanely hard to hire lately (compared to ~1 year ago.)
- joncooper 15y ago
  Do you know it to be the case that Color has paid a kid just out of school $150k + $1M in equity? When I was trying to hire Rails & front-end folks recently I was seeing the market around $100 - $130k for reasonably experienced people, and had success hiring in that context. $150k for someone out of school seems unlikely to me. Re: Color - I assume they raised their $40mm at something like $100mm post-money, which would mean a 1% option grant. That strikes me as far outside the norm for any engineer that isn't a core part of the team.
Retric 15y ago
Working for a well funded lame-duck company can be more profitable than most startups. Pulling some numbers from thin air: Conciser the breakeven point on 180K for 5 years vs 100K for 5 years? Well, 80K * 5 = 1/4 million + some interest. But what do you compare that to? let's assume it's been funded and you are getting .1% of the company. Well breakeven is now a ~250 million sale but what are your chances of hitting a 250+ million sale? PS: This is on the extreme end, but it just goes to show you that trading significant amounts of income for stock in funded companies is rarely worth it.