5 ms·

If there was a better way to know the value of stock I'd take it. They are going to give me 20,000. 20,000 of what? What is 1 worth, is it worth something if th

by sosuke 11y ago

If there was a better way to know the value of stock I'd take it. They are going to give me 20,000. 20,000 of what? What is 1 worth, is it worth something if the company sells now, tomorrow, over valuation, under valuation. Those things are important if stock is part of your compensation.

pbreit 11y ago
Yes, agree, you need to know what % of the company the shares/options represent (either by knowing the % or by knowing the shares outstanding).
- choppaface 11y ago
  If there are a good amount of shares with a greater than 1x preference and/or the employee pool (with no preference) is much smaller than usual, then the company should make additional disclosure of this information.
dccoolgai 11y ago
Exactly. That's what I ended up telling them: "Thanks for offering me 5000 shares of your company, but you won't give me any details about what they're worth... did you issue 50 million shares? 5 million? If someone is stupid enough to take something that you won't tell them how much it is worth, you are going to end up with stupid/naive engineers and you will fail.
- pbreit 11y ago
  But the only concern you mentioned was about the priority of other shareholders which I think is a bit much.
  - to3m 11y ago
    "among other basic questions"... If this stuff is being given as if it's worth something, you need to know what that value is! And it's no good asking the people offering it you. Of course they'll tell you it's worth a lot! Whether they believe it or not - something about which I am genuinely agnostic - for every cynical, reptile-eyed psychopath, there's somebody who's downed a yard of koolaid - it's in their interest to emphasise the potential value of non-hard-currency compensation, because it's cheaper to pay you that way than it is to find the (supposed) equivalent in actual money.

5 ms·

If there was a better way to know the value of stock I'd take it. They are going to give me 20,000. 20,000 of what? What is 1 worth, is it worth something if th

by sosuke 11y ago

pbreit 11y ago
Yes, agree, you need to know what % of the company the shares/options represent (either by knowing the % or by knowing the shares outstanding).
- choppaface 11y ago
  If there are a good amount of shares with a greater than 1x preference and/or the employee pool (with no preference) is much smaller than usual, then the company should make additional disclosure of this information.
dccoolgai 11y ago
Exactly. That's what I ended up telling them: "Thanks for offering me 5000 shares of your company, but you won't give me any details about what they're worth... did you issue 50 million shares? 5 million? If someone is stupid enough to take something that you won't tell them how much it is worth, you are going to end up with stupid/naive engineers and you will fail.
- pbreit 11y ago
  But the only concern you mentioned was about the priority of other shareholders which I think is a bit much.
  - to3m 11y ago
    "among other basic questions"... If this stuff is being given as if it's worth something, you need to know what that value is! And it's no good asking the people offering it you. Of course they'll tell you it's worth a lot! Whether they believe it or not - something about which I am genuinely agnostic - for every cynical, reptile-eyed psychopath, there's somebody who's downed a yard of koolaid - it's in their interest to emphasise the potential value of non-hard-currency compensation, because it's cheaper to pay you that way than it is to find the (supposed) equivalent in actual money.