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I don't think I have ever seen a startup offer a competitive salary/equity package here in the Bay Area for a software engineer. I have found that the best I could do is trade compensation for a good work-life balance since salary is not competitive and stock is so volatile for a startup, whereas at big companies salary often is much more in line with the market and stock has actual liquid value.

Interesting, I typically don't see that here in Boulder.

> Options are a complex topic, this article gets a lot wrong.

...so what did this article get wrong?

> The base offer.

For high level engineers the disparity between what Facebook/Google will pay you and what you'd make at startups can get pretty high. In my personal experience the salaries aren't actually competitive unless you start personally valuing the equity at a significant level. It seems Dan has the same experience.

> The value of the options depends on your ability to pick the right startup

I think his article does a better job of answering the question "how do you value the options provided by the startup assuming X level of success" than you do here. "I have a friend who picked the right startup 4 times in a row" doesn't really help people figure out if they've picked the right startup. "It's possible! People have made money on the stock market!" << This is not reason to play the stock market.

> Stock options are typically priced at 25% of the last round.

I'm assuming you're talking about the section where he calls valuations bogus. Your statement here doesn't invalidate the writing: "First, the valuation is updated relatively infrequently" << this remains true. And the round valuation is still a complex number that's mostly investor speculation and not representative of what your shares will net you -- which is the argument here -- that you might be better off offering cash than some hard to quantify thing.

> So in a nutshell, starting companies, joining early stage companies. It really depends on your ability to pick the right company and perhaps more importantly your ability to make a difference.

Thanks for the inactionable advice.

1. Not even close to true, check Dan's other post here: https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/

2. If you're that good at picking startups, become a VC.

3. Common shares are priced less than preferred because they're worth less than preferred.

4. Startups at every stage give liquidation preferences. Startups under pressure will give more significant preferences, sure, but they're relevant to basically every startup.