3 ms·

Meh. On $100 million the common employees aren't going to see much anyway. Maybe for #1 and #2 it'll be a big deal, but for #10 with his 0.002 of the company, t

Meh. On $100 million the common employees aren't going to see much anyway. Maybe for #1 and #2 it'll be a big deal, but for #10 with his 0.002 of the company, that's going to be a nice bonus and not much else. So I can understand the founders deciding to shoot for the moon.

mindcrime 14y ago
That's still $200,000 if I did my math right. That's a little bit more than "a nice bonus" but definitely not "FU Money". But it might just be enough cushion for somebody to quit and self-fund their own startup for a year or so. That's not a bad thing to have, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
- btrautsc 14y ago
  Agreed. $200k for in many of these cases, a limited time at the company. Most/ all had raised some VC money, so were likely paying competitive salaries. So, you're one of the last engineers @ foursquare (for ex.), Dens does sell to Facebook, you maybe get a slight raise/ comparable pay, more job security, and your handcuffs are the same as your vesting schedule was anyway. Oh, and you have $200k in the bank. So when you decide to leave FB and start your own thing (or buy a house/ take a year to travel) there is that.
- jamesaguilar 14y ago
  200k over four years, less taxes, which will be maxed because you'll realize all of the earnings as income in one year. So around 30k a year take-home. Maybe slightly more than the standard 10-15% salary bonus of an intermediate engineer at BigCo, but it's not why the guy is working at the startup, or at least I hope it isn't for his sake.
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Sure, I definitely agree that - in general - "employee number 10" and later aren't going to get rich from their startups. And hopefully they aren't expecting to. Better, yet, hopefully the company goes public are more like a billion dollar valuation, so that they do get rich even if they only own 0.002 worth. :-)
    - jamesaguilar 14y ago
      Yep, and good on 'em if so. :)
crapshoot101 14y ago
This is silly to say without knowing the cap table - common could own 90%, or it could 30% - either way, that's a substantial amount of money.
- jamesaguilar 14y ago
  I'm just going by what I heard people have been getting from some of my friends. Obviously it depends on how a given company is set up. Obviously.

mindcrime 14y ago

That's still $200,000 if I did my math right. That's a little bit more than "a nice bonus" but definitely not "FU Money". But it might just be enough cushion for somebody to quit and self-fund their own startup for a year or so. That's not a bad thing to have, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

btrautsc 14y ago
Agreed. $200k for in many of these cases, a limited time at the company. Most/ all had raised some VC money, so were likely paying competitive salaries. So, you're one of the last engineers @ foursquare (for ex.), Dens does sell to Facebook, you maybe get a slight raise/ comparable pay, more job security, and your handcuffs are the same as your vesting schedule was anyway. Oh, and you have $200k in the bank. So when you decide to leave FB and start your own thing (or buy a house/ take a year to travel) there is that.
jamesaguilar 14y ago
200k over four years, less taxes, which will be maxed because you'll realize all of the earnings as income in one year. So around 30k a year take-home. Maybe slightly more than the standard 10-15% salary bonus of an intermediate engineer at BigCo, but it's not why the guy is working at the startup, or at least I hope it isn't for his sake.
- mindcrime 14y ago
  Sure, I definitely agree that - in general - "employee number 10" and later aren't going to get rich from their startups. And hopefully they aren't expecting to. Better, yet, hopefully the company goes public are more like a billion dollar valuation, so that they do get rich even if they only own 0.002 worth. :-)
  - jamesaguilar 14y ago
    Yep, and good on 'em if so. :)

crapshoot101 14y ago

This is silly to say without knowing the cap table - common could own 90%, or it could 30% - either way, that's a substantial amount of money.

jamesaguilar 14y ago
I'm just going by what I heard people have been getting from some of my friends. Obviously it depends on how a given company is set up. Obviously.