Series B startup offer vs public companies

Aug 30, 2021 18 Comments

Trying to decide between the following offers -

1. Offer from series B startup for EM of 4 MLEs in Computer Vision / perception
$220K Base + 0.066% of company in stock options - 4 yr grant with 1-yr cliff and monthly vesting there after. Latest funding round raised $40M (ser B) @ $205M valuation. Strike price of $1.91 with current estimated preferred price of $10.84. No bonus, no benefits (like 401k match, etc)

2. Confluent - EM of 7 ppl
TC $465K - $230K base + 15% annual bonus + $800K RSUs over 4 years
Annual refreshers.
Pre-negotiation

3. Twitter - Sr EM of 8 ppl. Realtime data platform (No ML)
TC $469K amortized annual ($230K base, 25% bonus, $700K RSUs over 4 years, $25K sign-on bonus). Eligible for refreshers after 2 years. After negotiation

11 YOE

57 PARTICIPANTS SELECT ONLY ONE ANSWER
VOTE VIEW RESULT

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 18 Comments
  • Samsara
    ucfL61

    Go to company page Samsara

    ucfL61
    I almost exclusively do startups so I will speak about them. Will this be your first startup? You’ve gotta understand that the stock options are riskiest asset, you will need to buy them from your post tax income. They won’t have any liquidity until an exit event and there will be tax implications. You have two options, 1. Ask for equity rather than options 2. Ask for guaranteed liquidity i.e. bonus. 20-30% cash bonus annually. Also, in the event the company does not have an exit planned in next 4 years, don’t go there. Rather take a bet on pre-IPO unicorns such as Samsara, Stripe, Cruise. They will not give a large percentage of the company considering the mature stage of funding, but they will give you enough RSUs that will be liquid in next 2 years or less. You don’t have to buy them and taxation is more straightforward
    Aug 30, 2021 10
    • @rowfcw, past success of founding team is no guarantee of future success. My earlier series B startup founders had paired together for a previous successful exit. But their 2nd one flopped. It depends on what you want to take away from the startup experience - if you prefer accelerated career growth over financial success, join it. If you prioritize getting rich sooner, join Facebook. But expect that you will be working as hard at Facebook as in your startup. Facebook performance cycles reset every 6 months, keeping engineers on their toes. If you cannot demonstrate consistent impact, they will fire you.
      Aug 31, 2021
    • Samsara
      ucfL61

      Go to company page Samsara

      ucfL61
      FB is switching to Annual perf cycles I heard
      Aug 31, 2021
  • Netflix
    DaneBramag

    Go to company page Netflix

    DaneBramag
    Not Twitter
    Aug 30, 2021 2
  • Google
    godbye

    Go to company page Google

    godbye
    Why is EM only in 400k ranges? I thought they will be like 600k
    Aug 30, 2021 1
  • Facebook / Eng
    wndiwplowo

    Go to company page Facebook Eng

    wndiwplowo
    What is the name of series B startup?
    Aug 30, 2021 1