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I think the answer is that for everybody who brags about the equity package there are 9 other people who don't talk about the underwater options or the losses t
by htrp 4y ago
I think the answer is that for everybody who brags about the equity package there are 9 other people who don't talk about the underwater options or the losses they ended up taking
- trynewideas 4y agoWorking at a company for almost six years, with equity as a significant part of the compensation, and losing 20% of what I exercised - in my fourth startup with an equity component, none of them doing better than break-even - means I just do not care about equity when offered it anymore. If I'm offered, say, $150k + ISOs now, my brain just chucks it out the other end as $150k + $0. And I got to that place even before the market started to fall over. I remember a recruiter in the offer stage of one job describing the ISOs - "if we go 2x, your options will be worth $XX,XXX. If we go 10x, they'll be worth $X,XXX,XXX" - and I had to cut her off as gently as I could so we could get to the health insurance that I would probably be maxing out the deductible on instead. (That job didn't last long enough to vest any of the options; laid off after a leadership change/re-org.)