I'm L5 at Google and got an offer from a 100M$ valued startup: Option A) 120k + 0.3% stock for 3 years Option B) 100k +0.3% stock for 4 years, 0.1% when the company grows to 500M$ Currently I earn according to median Google L5. Please help me decide how good of an offer this is.
That’s some good stock offer. No idea what the companies do so can’t judge viability
Is the startup already public?
Why post if you’re this clueless about how startups work?
There’s no shame in being clueless about facts that have not been shared.
I feel like base should be closer to 200k?
The startup is not public by far. They just got 15M for 100M valuation.
Here are some of the things you need to think about, let’s say for option A: 1. You can live comfortably off $120K/year for at least the next 5 years. 2. The company’s valuation will continue to grow over this period and 5x your equity to ~$1.5M/year worked. 3. Given that roughly 30% of VC-backed startups make it to IPO/acquisition your risk-adjusted equity is about $500k. So you need to believe that a very back-heavy-in-years TC from this adventure significantly exceeds the almost guaranteed TC (with stock and career appreciation) from Google. Insert your numbers here. 4. My math is super rough, but the I have a hard time seeing how this venture pencils out, buddy.
Wth 1.5M/y coming from
I am wondering what other little startups give compared to this.
Got it. Yeah I dunno. Still feels very low. I was talking to series A/B startups and they mentioned base would be same as my current (160k, 2 YOE).
If you feel strongly the startup can reach 1B+ within the next 3 years then it's ok but for 100M valuation is bad
What do you base this on? Do you have some data-points?
0.3% is 300k at the current valuation which is a very low joining equity for your level and risk
At very small startups (up to lets say 10ppl) a senior engineer would get ~1% of stock from my experience. I got ~0.2% and 120k base (but was remote in a lower CoL than BA) at my previous startup (I had like 5-6 YoE at the time). They were already fairly established, between B/C rounds. Plus I really wanted to join for the learning/career growth potential which paid off.
Can you explain how it pays off to join an early stage startup given typical FAANG career path?
No, only the very first couple get 1% or more. Op’s offer is very reasonable
If you're taking it... Take it for the experience, for the journey. Not for $$ As it makes 0 sense unless you're the founder. Let's say in 4 years your equity is worth 1M. 4 years with 250K difference on TC makes exactly that, and before accounting for stock appreciation. Most likely the startup will tank( most do)
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