Good Programmers Don't Work for Equity

yegor256.com

24 points·yegor256a··7 comments

Startup L Jackson said that you should work for a startup not to get rich, but to get a crazy amount of experience.

By that token, you, a good programmer should not settle for a lower salary in exchange for equity. You'll be working many long days - that's what the equity is for. Your salary should still be normal.

Don't let startups con you out of a normal salary.

True but someone who can pay cash does not mean he is a good entrepreneur. A good entrepreneur can convince you to join him with his charisma, idea and the future or possibilities that he can create. Money is second to judge him. You can suggest to become a partner not only asking for money or equity if you find the idea is good.

Clickbait title should be "Good programmers will only work for equity with good entrepreneurs."

That doesn't seem to be what he's saying--in fact, he says "a good programmer will never work for equity." He says if you can't pay cash, you're not a good entrepreneur.

Fortunately for the world, Woz did not subscribe to this point of view.

Possibly not the best example--to my understanding, Jobs sold his car and pre-sold the Apple I to raise cash from day one, and apparently even before that got a deal with Atari that he then subcontracted Woz to fulfill. So I don't think Jobs would fail this blog author's test.

Regardless, both of them certainly risked a lot.

He certainly wasn't able to pay what the author considers "a good engineer's salary" or even what HP was paying Woz as an entry level engineer. It was sweat equity—exactly what the author complains about. The same was true of the earliest fb hires who are now fabulously wealthy. It's a common trend in startups.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com