Evaluating the equity portion of my recent job offer | Hacker News Reader

Evaluating the equity portion of my recent job offer

2 pointsgutcheck4 comments

Looking for some advice or gut reactions on the equity portion of a recent job offer.

Here are the details: Offerd 35k shares on a float of 30 million = 0.1% Most recent valuation: $75MM

The company's existing business is fairly established and they recently closed a Series C.

But, while the business has been around it's not really growing. I am coming on board as a Director to drive the creation of a new product, which hopefully will move the valuation north of $200MM.

My gut feels it's low because of the direct responsibility & risk I'm assuming in achieving the new goal. But, technically, I'm not "getting in early", which is where you see larger ownership %'s or shares offered.

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I honestly assume my equity will give me absolutely nothing, and aim to get pleasantly surprised. Lots of things can happen. You could leave before you vest much. They could close yet another round of financing, devaluing your shares.

Oddly enough, in my personal experience, the most equity I ever got was when a company decided not to go public, but who's parent company was quite valuable. They offered to buy back our shares at a pretty nice price, since our shares were effectively those of the parent company.

Nearly everyone I know has had equity in all of their jobs for the last ten years or so (SF Bay Area), and not one of us has had any lifestyle-changing equity come out of it. Surely we all hope our current or next jobs will have a nice big financial event during our tenure, but I don't plan or anticipate it.

Sure,... I think I am realistic about the probability that the equity will be a windfall. But, at the same time, that's A reason why I take the risk of joining a startup. I want to be in the game. And, if I'm in the game, I want to maximize the potential reward. Thanks.

Shares or options? At the most recent value, that's ~$90k in shares, and would be taxed as such, no? Options would be better from a tax perspective.

Recent funding != stable, what do the books look like? I'm going to guess not profitable. Was the round C to stay alive, or expand operations / R&D / Sales? Have they even flirted with profitability?

Do you feel like the comp package (minus the equity) is fair? Do you know if you'll even be empowered (really) to drive a new product or are you walking into a political mess and are going to get canned before the shares even vest (is there a vesting schedule?)

Lots of questions to factor in. My opinion is always to ask them all, and their willingness to answer (regardless of the answer's content) will tell you everything you need to know.

Unless you come in pre-funding or take a C-level position, you're typically not ever going to get rich off options.

0.1% isn't actually too bad for company that's been around long enough to get to a series C and for a middle management position.

Figure they have an option pool of 15%-20%; your 0.1% is a decent chunk of the overall pool.

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