Employee Equity

I've worked at two startups, including one YC. Both were acquired by larger tech companies. I was employee #3 at one and rebuilt most of a broken codebase in the other. I got nothing out of either WRT options. I agree with the author on point 4 but I don't think more options are the answer, I should have just asked for a higher salary I would have been better off. Startup-bucks are even worse than a lottery ticket, because…

I work for a top-5 YC investment (by current valuation) and none of the things Sam discusses are true of our company: -Employee equity is much lower than his recommendations. -We have 90 days to exercise options. -They refused to tell me what percentage my equity represented when I applied. -They refused to tell me information about burn rate/money in the bank when I applied. I still took the job, because money was not a primary motivating factor, but it…

Targeting an expected value equivalent to what Google might provide is under-compensating relative to the risk. Why not just join Google? Compounding this is that "expected value" is often grossly optimistic. Furthermore, depending on when hires 1-5 occur, 1%-2% equity in the form of options can significantly under-value the risk they take.