If you had an option to stay at Google at 300k or seed startup at 100k what makes more sense? Is the potential success of startup worth it or is it usually never worth it. Start up is funded by Khosla Ventures, which I know is decently big but being new don't know how prestigious they are. Thanks, Ask me more questions for detail, I'm pretty new to this.
“Potential success” will always be “potential” and you’ll never get the payoff.
Folks has been telling me this... They are saying dude you got a good job stay, you will never become a millionaire joining seed startup and will fail.
100K + how much equity? People who work for seed stage startups probably do it for the equity.
Haha good question, don't know yet but got my last round this Friday will let you know. I was just starting to get cold feet and was wondering I was stupid to think this seed round startup will make me more successful. They told me it will be in the percentage, but must be low....
Be extremely careful on the equity contract. You don’t want them to dilute your ‘percentages’ into ‘ten-thousandths’
You should do it. Free up more FAANG jobs for the rest of us who appreciate them.
Lolol great comment. Hmmm this is making me consider it.
Higher risk, higher reward
Anyone with successful experience? Or is it just super based on luck?
All FANG it was that, right? They started as a tiny startup....
100k is too bad and risky. 200k is more worth it. 300k from Google is a great offer!! Also depends on the startup product and potential growth opportunities
Find out how much equity you will get, then factor in future dilution from subsequent funding rounds. Then do a bull/base/bear case for valuation of company at exit (probably assume 0 for bear case). Apply probabilities to those cases and do a weighted average of the valuation, times your future diluted equity stake. If it looks good and you are fine with 1/3rd TC for the foreseeable future, and you are fine with the risk, go for it. Otherwise, stay
Thank you for a very good answer about how I should think about this. Gotta pull out my good old basic finance calculation. How do you know how much is going to be diluted?
Really depends on the stage of the company/current valuation/how much they plan to or will raise in the future.
If you’re asking this question, don’t go. You’re thinking about money as a driver. You join a startup not for money but for growth (learn business, meeting people) usually at loss of some earnings.
OP, I think you should give more info about the startup if you want a nontrivial answer.
Why are you interested in the startup? The mention of TC in your post suggests that you're trying to optimize financially - in which case you should steer very, very far away from just about any startup A startup is good for many things - you can be much more closely attached to a product, you can operate at a more senior level than your YoE would suggest, and you can dabble in many fields at once, but unless you are joining at the cofounder level they will - even in very optimistic scenarios - not pay. Others have mentioned dilution which is just scratching the surface - look into liquidation preferences and ratchets. In short, the way VC-funded startups have things structured the VCs will always, always get first, often at multiples exceeding actual valuation appreciation. Even a successful startup frequently pays little to nothing to line employees due to investors absorbing the bulk of any actual gains. Remember, as a line employee you are *last* in line to get paid even when the startup succeeds.
I can confirm you get paid last as an employee when it liquidates too. You might even not get paid anything.
Yeah. The common narrative of "startups don't pay because so many fail" is not even the full story. It's more "startups don't pay (for line employees) even if they are wild successes" Also to OP: another problem is if you can actually hold out for the equity to be useful. Most startup options contracts expire 90 days after you leave the job - so unless you stay glued to this company for the N years it takes to exit, you are likely walking away with zero equity anyway, since the odds of you leaving before the exit is... High. If you want to optimize for earnings, negotiate really high FAANG offers and ride the wave.
Since you don't sound sure about the startup, I say go with G.
Oh wow strong majority of folks says stay at Google... Yeah it's weird, I felt like I really wanted to join this startup and I haven't gotten the offer yet, but the more I think about it I'm getting cold feet. Then I started thinking am I stupid for wanting to move.
Most startups fail. Unless you REALLY believe in it and you really know and click with the people, you should avoid it. First hand experience.