4 ms·

I greatly second this. I'm doing a job search now and have already had to turn down three offers from early stage startups, because the compensation is delusion

I greatly second this. I'm doing a job search now and have already had to turn down three offers from early stage startups, because the compensation is delusionally low. I'm talking 40-60k below market rate, with pitiful stock options to make up for it. I often wonder who would even let themselves be taken advantage of so strongly? Why would any halfway decent engineer take 65-80k with 0.25-0.5% equity? Either be a founding member, or join a larger already successful company who will give you market compensation. Don't get caught in the middle soup of being taken advantage of and often being part of a very poorly run companies.

tbrownaw 12y ago
I'm talking 40-60k below market rate, with pitiful stock options to make up for it. I often wonder who would even let themselves be taken advantage of so strongly? Why would any halfway decent engineer take 65-80k with 0.25-0.5% equity? see news about $100M exits ==> 0.5% == $500k heard mention of a 10% success rate ==> $50k expected value $50k == (market_rate - salary) ==> sounds about right Which of course misses that (1) the utility of large amounts of money isn't linear (expected value doesn't work that way on single occurrences); (2) future money should be discounted by some rate; and (3) your equity will get diluted. And that the slaray difference is per year, and the equity is a one-time thing. And whatever else I missed.
- Jormundir 12y ago
  Yeah, though this is napkin calculations, 10% chance of $100M exit is wayyyy too high. I would love for someone to cite a real figure, but I would guess it's less than 0.5%. Having been through a $50M acquisition with some options, it's really not worth the risk at all. I keep with the opinion: anyone who sacrifices salary for options is a fool. I also suspect the people getting ripped off here tend to be younger people who don't really know what they're worth, don't know just how much money they're giving up.

tbrownaw 12y ago

I'm talking 40-60k below market rate, with pitiful stock options to make up for it. I often wonder who would even let themselves be taken advantage of so strongly? Why would any halfway decent engineer take 65-80k with 0.25-0.5% equity? see news about $100M exits ==> 0.5% == $500k heard mention of a 10% success rate ==> $50k expected value $50k == (market_rate - salary) ==> sounds about right Which of course misses that (1) the utility of large amounts of money isn't linear (expected value doesn't work that way on single occurrences); (2) future money should be discounted by some rate; and (3) your equity will get diluted. And that the slaray difference is per year, and the equity is a one-time thing. And whatever else I missed.

Jormundir 12y ago
Yeah, though this is napkin calculations, 10% chance of $100M exit is wayyyy too high. I would love for someone to cite a real figure, but I would guess it's less than 0.5%. Having been through a $50M acquisition with some options, it's really not worth the risk at all. I keep with the opinion: anyone who sacrifices salary for options is a fool. I also suspect the people getting ripped off here tend to be younger people who don't really know what they're worth, don't know just how much money they're giving up.