4 ms·

Stock in a large publicly traded company is a lot different than options in startup. I definitely think it makes sense to apply some discount to stock compensa

Stock in a large publicly traded company is a lot different than options in startup. I definitely think it makes sense to apply some discount to stock compensation when comparing offers, but if stock in a large publicly traded company is very likely worth something.

JohnFen 3y ago
The two are definitely different, yes. But I ignore both of them anyway, personally. It's very hard to know what the future value of any stock (even in a large publicly traded company) will be, so it's very hard to figure out how to translate that into value in terms of compensation.
- sarchertech 3y ago
  Just pick some conservative discount like 50% of the current value. Your average large publicly traded company is unlikely to dip that far and not bounce back.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    That's fully reasonable, yes. It's not my style, but there's nothing wrong with it.
  - maerF0x0 3y ago
    TWLO has left the chat. (it was down about 90% from peak to trough) (as have many other names, not to pick on twlo specifically). I actually think (and so far am right) that it was massively undervalued at $45 a share.
- theptip 3y ago
  I think this is perhaps overly pessimistic. In general if you are getting RSUs and the share price tanks, you’ll get bumped back up with a refresher grant. The big public companies are making sure that your annualized total comp is in the right range, because if it isn’t (so the assumption goes) you’ll just move to another BigCo that will cut you a fresh grant at market rate.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    that is a very California way of looking at it. Non-competes don't work that way in a lot of places, and few companies outside of the largest would deem to throw that kind of compensation at people if the stock falters -- and only for certain tiers of employees. IBM would just fire you. Ditto for most of the other F500 sphere.
    - theptip 3y ago
      Fair. Perhaps I should be more specific: if your RSUs are <= 10% of total comp, as you say the employer might not top you up, and so conservative rounding down may be more reasonable. If your RSUs are closer to 50% of comp, rounding to zero will unreasonably hurt your comp comparisons, both by sheer magnitude of the grant, and because employer will definitely be conscious of regrants. Not all CA tech companies give huge RSU grants, but the biggest ones tend to.

JohnFen 3y ago

The two are definitely different, yes. But I ignore both of them anyway, personally. It's very hard to know what the future value of any stock (even in a large publicly traded company) will be, so it's very hard to figure out how to translate that into value in terms of compensation.

sarchertech 3y ago
Just pick some conservative discount like 50% of the current value. Your average large publicly traded company is unlikely to dip that far and not bounce back.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  That's fully reasonable, yes. It's not my style, but there's nothing wrong with it.
- maerF0x0 3y ago
  TWLO has left the chat. (it was down about 90% from peak to trough) (as have many other names, not to pick on twlo specifically). I actually think (and so far am right) that it was massively undervalued at $45 a share.
theptip 3y ago
I think this is perhaps overly pessimistic. In general if you are getting RSUs and the share price tanks, you’ll get bumped back up with a refresher grant. The big public companies are making sure that your annualized total comp is in the right range, because if it isn’t (so the assumption goes) you’ll just move to another BigCo that will cut you a fresh grant at market rate.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  that is a very California way of looking at it. Non-competes don't work that way in a lot of places, and few companies outside of the largest would deem to throw that kind of compensation at people if the stock falters -- and only for certain tiers of employees. IBM would just fire you. Ditto for most of the other F500 sphere.
  - theptip 3y ago
    Fair. Perhaps I should be more specific: if your RSUs are <= 10% of total comp, as you say the employer might not top you up, and so conservative rounding down may be more reasonable. If your RSUs are closer to 50% of comp, rounding to zero will unreasonably hurt your comp comparisons, both by sheer magnitude of the grant, and because employer will definitely be conscious of regrants. Not all CA tech companies give huge RSU grants, but the biggest ones tend to.