> But no incentive is as good as a fat chunk of equity + the power to influence its value. Meanwhile your sales team colleagues get their incentives paid out r

> But no incentive is as good as a fat chunk of equity + the power to influence its value. Meanwhile your sales team colleagues get their incentives paid out right away, in the very next quarter, and instead of equity lottery tickets it’s just cash. I’d like to see engineering get some of the types of cash incentives that sales teams get. Perhaps the only reason they don’t is because it’s too hard to come up with metrics to base commission on. Instead, they rely on equity awards even though the value of the company is often quite detached from the quality of the software. The fun of a startup is nice but it’s probably not worth it if you’re getting below-market compensation, crappy healthcare, long hours, and the IOU of an equity stake that’s probably crafted by financiers to screw over regular employees.