Show HN: How much will your shares be worth when your company sells?

Cool initiative! Once in a while I find myself pondering this question, kind of like I ponder the nature of the universe, in the sense that I know my answer will always be wrong. :)

Seriously though, I have absolutely no idea about this stuff, so much so that I can't even answer the four questions that this website asks me. One might think this financially irresponsible, but I've learned from both HN discussions, and the empathically painful experience watching others in past companies thinking they were going to get rich in an exit, just to see all the money vanish to already-rich outside investors. That is, I've learned to just negotiate a good salary/bonus/work-life-balance and treat the shares as a mystery box that will probably never be opened, or at most have some trinkets inside when it is opened.

That said, I think it would be cool if your website could help guide me on how to answer the four questions you pose. Like what forms to look at, maybe who to email in the company (and how) to get some of this info, how to estimate what the company will sell for, stuff like that.

Another way to look at this, is that anyone who could answer these four questions can probably already estimate their take-home themselves. So perhaps target this more at completely clueless people like myself.

Anyway I hope that's helpful. I definitely want there to be more tools like this out there.