I was a late joiner at a near-IPO startup, and did better than I’ve ever done at an early stage one. Even then, I’ve done way better with post-IPO RSU refresher

I was a late joiner at a near-IPO startup, and did better than I’ve ever done at an early stage one. Even then, I’ve done way better with post-IPO RSU refreshers than with the pre-IPO options. It took years for our publicly traded price to hit what management delusionally (or dishonestly) messaged us as our options’ worth pre-IPO. I remember a conversation when we got new ISO grants, that they might be worth $X, based on blah-blah-blah, but they’ll be worth at least $2X soon because we’re growing, so really you’re getting $2X! Which doesn’t even make sense to me if we’re going to view today’s price as a discounted future cashflow. Anyways, we’re finally trading at $X today, years and years after IPO. Moral of the story is that the people budgeting how much to pay you will engage with incredibly wishful thinking when deciding how much to pay you if they can. “Sure, Z shares seems super generous, right? We’re a rocket ship!” But when the market decides how much a share is really worth, they can’t screw you by pretending they’re paying out more. I’m only working for public companies from here out. And none of those 1 year grants that seem to be popping up.