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If you want to give up your $1M salary (seriously WTF) and you want to have much more control over a technology stack, sure. I halved my salary and worked in s

by mianos 5y ago

If you want to give up your $1M salary (seriously WTF) and you want to have much more control over a technology stack, sure. I halved my salary and worked in startups for quite a few years, some things were fantastic. For example, bootstrapping a bank from scratch. I left all that chaos for an established large firm and it totally sucked the life out of me. The chances of getting a million dollar a year income, in stock or salary in a new startup is next to nil. It is like being a muso and saying you want to be a rock star or actor. I worked for 4 startups over 9 years. Three are gone completely and the one that may be successful has diluted my equity so much it is now near worthless. Basically I will never get the salary cut I took back, ever.

tempforquestion 5y ago
I'm not trying to make $1M at a startup, but it does bother me when a startup spins their compensation to be what it is because the equity will become so valuable in the future.
czhiddy 5y ago
$1M in W2 earnings isn't that unusual for senior engineers at companies that have seen significant stock growth. Suppose you had a $200k salary, $500k RSUs over four years, $50k/year bonus offer mid-2017. The last batch of stock vesting in 2021 would have pushed total stock adjusted compensation close to the 7 figure mark. NVDA has seen over +500% stock growth during that time. Apple has gone up close to 400%, GOOG over +200%. What's interesting is that even if we ignore the recent dip, FB has only gone up +150% since mid-2017. If you held through the recent dip, that falls to something around +60% over four years.
- mianos 5y ago
  The chance of getting a million a year in stock equivalent is next to nil. These are extreme outliers, you can probably count the number of companies on two hands, and maybe name them all. In terms of statistics, achieving this would be very 'unusual'.

by mianos 5y ago

tempforquestion 5y ago

I'm not trying to make $1M at a startup, but it does bother me when a startup spins their compensation to be what it is because the equity will become so valuable in the future.

czhiddy 5y ago

$1M in W2 earnings isn't that unusual for senior engineers at companies that have seen significant stock growth. Suppose you had a $200k salary, $500k RSUs over four years, $50k/year bonus offer mid-2017. The last batch of stock vesting in 2021 would have pushed total stock adjusted compensation close to the 7 figure mark. NVDA has seen over +500% stock growth during that time. Apple has gone up close to 400%, GOOG over +200%. What's interesting is that even if we ignore the recent dip, FB has only gone up +150% since mid-2017. If you held through the recent dip, that falls to something around +60% over four years.

mianos 5y ago
The chance of getting a million a year in stock equivalent is next to nil. These are extreme outliers, you can probably count the number of companies on two hands, and maybe name them all. In terms of statistics, achieving this would be very 'unusual'.