I’ll post a little about my personal situation but I’m sure other users will appreciate general advice in this area. So I’m a new grad, got a series D unicorn startup offer of 120/120 (no signing). The company said the base/equity ratio is negotiable depending on what I want. The company is growing fairly quickly and so my gut tells me to push on more equity, but how much is too much? Any general advice here? For every 1k of base, should that be equal to 4K RSUs? (4 year vesting) Also no real idea of how soon an exit will be. I’m aware this question is difficult when not knowing the actual company. General advice would be appreciated though.
Go for 100% base. U never know what’ll happen to the stock, or even if they’ll ever IPO.
Ipo can be 5-10 years out (best case, if you look at Airbnb, Uber, lyft) so depends on your cash flow needs; 120 may not cover rent and life style in Silicon Valley. If you push for equity at the end you’ll either have lots of $ or lots of stories (bought a lot of ‘learning curve’). I would emphasize more job skills/role instead of equity as long as equity is in ballpark of your peers. What I take to my next job is experience and what I have in the bank. Everything else is intangible.
Go for more base because equity is still very negotiable after you join as part of performance refreshers, getting your base adjusted is a lot more difficult later.
Congrats! What’s the exercise window? For example: is it 10 years? https://triplebyte.com/blog/fixing-the-inequity-of-startup-equity
Ah it’s in RSUs. Should’ve specified