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> True, but BigCo's also have consistent (if meager) raise policies. We have consistent (and not meager) raise policies. > With a typical engineer slice, a $1

> True, but BigCo's also have consistent (if meager) raise policies. We have consistent (and not meager) raise policies. > With a typical engineer slice, a $10m or even $100m exit isn't meaningful. You might get $10-20k per year of vesting. Even in bad years, bankers get better bonuses (without the tax problems.) Depends on when you join. If you join early, $100m will damn well be meaningful. If you join later, I hope you'd only consider doing so if the company has significant traction and should be worth many times more than $100m. > There are soul-sucking startups and non-soul-sucking big companies. Cultures tend to regress to the mean with size, so the really amazing and really horrible companies tend to be startups, while all the big companies tend to be somewhere in the middle. I will give you that there are both good and very bad startups. My experience with large companies is that they regress towards the 25th percentile, at best. Spend more time around the startup before joining and decide what the culture is like for yourself. Any founder can blow smoke up your ass about how awesome the culture is in an interview; spend a week working and you'll get a pretty good idea.

x0x0 13y ago
Let's take your $100m exit and do an example. Say you're granted .4% as an A round employee, 30% dilution for a round B, 10% dilution at a round C, then an exit so no round D gives a final ownership percentage of 0.4% * .63 = 0.252%. Say you worked there for four years, you get 100e6 * 0.252 * 1e-2 = $250k before taxes plus strike. Pretax that's a $62k per year spiff, and at best, with good tax advice, $50k / year after taxes. We can quibble about meaningful, but $250k is an ok down payment for a relatively modest $1mm house on the peninsula. We apparently have different ideas about meaningful. Most startups, even many claiming otherwise pay less than market. You could probably capture at least half that $50k/year in cash, particularly if you're willing to work for goog/fb/msft/etc. That doesn't even touch the variance of that payout. Also, in expectation and off the top of my head with your success statistics, that $252k is under $50k.
- burgreblast 13y ago
  Can't disagree with your math, and that's after a $100M exit. We too had a low 9 figure exit. Although the money wasn't life changing for employees, the experience was. Winning feels good, man. a) startups mostly fail, and aren't for most people b) don't join to get rich, join for the team c) remember pmarca's insight that market is more important than team for success. d) whatever the outcome, don't be bitter, or gloat.

x0x0 13y ago

Let's take your $100m exit and do an example. Say you're granted .4% as an A round employee, 30% dilution for a round B, 10% dilution at a round C, then an exit so no round D gives a final ownership percentage of 0.4% * .63 = 0.252%. Say you worked there for four years, you get 100e6 * 0.252 * 1e-2 = $250k before taxes plus strike. Pretax that's a $62k per year spiff, and at best, with good tax advice, $50k / year after taxes. We can quibble about meaningful, but $250k is an ok down payment for a relatively modest $1mm house on the peninsula. We apparently have different ideas about meaningful. Most startups, even many claiming otherwise pay less than market. You could probably capture at least half that $50k/year in cash, particularly if you're willing to work for goog/fb/msft/etc. That doesn't even touch the variance of that payout. Also, in expectation and off the top of my head with your success statistics, that $252k is under $50k.

burgreblast 13y ago
Can't disagree with your math, and that's after a $100M exit. We too had a low 9 figure exit. Although the money wasn't life changing for employees, the experience was. Winning feels good, man. a) startups mostly fail, and aren't for most people b) don't join to get rich, join for the team c) remember pmarca's insight that market is more important than team for success. d) whatever the outcome, don't be bitter, or gloat.