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Having worked in startups in SF and now Boston for the last 12 years, I first started making my current salary in 2014 and have never made more than that from o

Having worked in startups in SF and now Boston for the last 12 years, I first started making my current salary in 2014 and have never made more than that from one job. So in real figures, salaries have come down quite a bit due to inflation. Only real way to make money in tech is FAANG. I've owned so much worthless stock it's basically a meme.

swyx 4y ago
as in, all the non FAANG startup stock you earned became worthless? its actually kind of rare to have that high of a failure rate in startups, particularly by name brand VCs. feel like at worst you get a shitty acquihire but you at least get _something_ for your stock
- IaacForHire 4y ago
  Personally I've only ever gotten close to making $$ off of stock once, but got fired 2 weeks before my first vesting period because I took 2 weeks off after my father's death. Every other start-up I've worked for either went under, never exited or had an exit only the founders profited from. This is probably true for 99% of all start-ups.
  - oconnore 4y ago
    > fired 2 weeks before my first vesting period because I took 2 weeks off after my father's death That seems quite implausible. Not that the managers there weren’t jerks, or that this didn’t contribute to the conflict, but there seems to be a lack of reflection on this story because there is almost certainly more to it than that.
    - cableshaft 4y ago
      It's very plausible. I can see managers get bent out of shape for people taking sudden time off (which is bound to happen when a family member dies), likely because they don't have proper redundancy in place (at least that's been the case at pretty much every company I've worked for), and might be put into a bind as a result, and feel resentment against their employee when they shouldn't. So they get rid of them and hire someone else. Most of the US has at-will employment, and they can terminate you at any time for any legal reason, and there's no federal-level laws on offering bereavement time off, so I bet this happens more often than you think (at least a cursory google search brings up quite a few people telling stories of it happening to them).
    - IaacForHire 4y ago
      It was a small company, 8 people including an office admin and an intern. I was simultaneously doing conference marketing and managing our infrastructure. Dad died, I told them I had to go, didn't communicate much, because my dad had died, and they thought it was inappropriate that I wasn't calling them while taking care of my mother. I also found out later that a certain YCombinator partner found out that I had 2% of the company and suggested they fire me before I vest because it was an "obscene" amount of stock for a single employee to have, even if I was the 7th employee and took a 50% salary cut in exchange for that stock. So yeah, there's more to the story.
- bombcar 4y ago
  The only acquihire I was remotely involved with resulted in stock worth something, but on the amounts of low thousands for the chief engineer. Many many many startups don’t even get that much. They fold entirely or get acquihired for “hey you still have a job”.
  - IaacForHire 4y ago
    The best I ever did with a startup was in 2002 when everybody went under. I made about $200k in 10 months buying routers and switches from startups and selling them to VARs. I have a folder somewhere in storage with all of my stock certs. I framed the worthless one from Napster :)
- IshKebab 4y ago
  You probably wouldn't get anything for your stock unless the acquisition price is higher than the price the investors paid though.

swyx 4y ago

as in, all the non FAANG startup stock you earned became worthless? its actually kind of rare to have that high of a failure rate in startups, particularly by name brand VCs. feel like at worst you get a shitty acquihire but you at least get _something_ for your stock

IaacForHire 4y ago
Personally I've only ever gotten close to making $$ off of stock once, but got fired 2 weeks before my first vesting period because I took 2 weeks off after my father's death. Every other start-up I've worked for either went under, never exited or had an exit only the founders profited from. This is probably true for 99% of all start-ups.
- oconnore 4y ago
  > fired 2 weeks before my first vesting period because I took 2 weeks off after my father's death That seems quite implausible. Not that the managers there weren’t jerks, or that this didn’t contribute to the conflict, but there seems to be a lack of reflection on this story because there is almost certainly more to it than that.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    It's very plausible. I can see managers get bent out of shape for people taking sudden time off (which is bound to happen when a family member dies), likely because they don't have proper redundancy in place (at least that's been the case at pretty much every company I've worked for), and might be put into a bind as a result, and feel resentment against their employee when they shouldn't. So they get rid of them and hire someone else. Most of the US has at-will employment, and they can terminate you at any time for any legal reason, and there's no federal-level laws on offering bereavement time off, so I bet this happens more often than you think (at least a cursory google search brings up quite a few people telling stories of it happening to them).
  - IaacForHire 4y ago
    It was a small company, 8 people including an office admin and an intern. I was simultaneously doing conference marketing and managing our infrastructure. Dad died, I told them I had to go, didn't communicate much, because my dad had died, and they thought it was inappropriate that I wasn't calling them while taking care of my mother. I also found out later that a certain YCombinator partner found out that I had 2% of the company and suggested they fire me before I vest because it was an "obscene" amount of stock for a single employee to have, even if I was the 7th employee and took a 50% salary cut in exchange for that stock. So yeah, there's more to the story.
bombcar 4y ago
The only acquihire I was remotely involved with resulted in stock worth something, but on the amounts of low thousands for the chief engineer. Many many many startups don’t even get that much. They fold entirely or get acquihired for “hey you still have a job”.
- IaacForHire 4y ago
  The best I ever did with a startup was in 2002 when everybody went under. I made about $200k in 10 months buying routers and switches from startups and selling them to VARs. I have a folder somewhere in storage with all of my stock certs. I framed the worthless one from Napster :)
IshKebab 4y ago
You probably wouldn't get anything for your stock unless the acquisition price is higher than the price the investors paid though.