Hacker News Reader

Since he never answers the most burning question ("how much equity should I expect?"), I'll throw out some numbers based on my experience:

If you're being hired as a C-level executive, you might expect up to 2% - 3%. If you're being hired as an engineer, expect more like 0.25% - 0.5%. I'm sure it varies quite a bit, but that's what I've seen personally and heard from friends.

View on HN

An IT Manager/First IT Employee can expect to see 0.1% of a startup with $3mm in funding and a $10mm pre-money valuation.

And, just a note - unless the strike price has increased significantly, or a lot of employees have been hired, I disagree with the premise of the author of the article that "Re-Up" aren't to maintain the same percentage of equity. In my experience, they are used to do precisely that.

The people who are diluted are those who've left the company. Sometimes very, very significantly - particularly if there is a reverse-split in the mix as well. Existing employees simply get grants to keep their stake the same.

I've heard those types of figures, too, but never read anything that backed it up with specific examples. I also understand that shares are vested over a certain period of time; i.e. 0.25% each quarter

Though it's different for each startup, anyone have any specific examples of fair compensation?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com