Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me. And the reason I say so is because my theory is this: There's no reason to join a startup except to get rich, or to change the world (or both.) If you wanted a "competitive salary" you could go work for Oracle or IBM or Cisco or somebody and get that. So why join the startup at all, unless you're going to make big bank, or unless you just really, really believe in their idea? So, that said, you're looking at options, and not an outright stock grant? As the first hire? IMO, f!@# that... If I were joining an early stage startup, I'd be thinking "forgo all salary except enough to eat Ramen noodles, and give me x% of stock up front (allowing for vesting periods, etc.)" Otherwise, it's just another job, with the possibility of a nice little bonus thrown in. But a "nice little bonus" isn't "FU Money" which is what I'd be looking for, if I were to join a startup.

But that's just me.... if your motivations are different, it may be more appealing to you.

The part you left out for joining a startup that is also important is the learning experience. Besides getting rich and changing the world, the experience itself is valuable. You can go on to find riches and change the world later. I wouldn't come into a startup expecting either/or.

Fair enough. If I were younger, I'd probably be looking at it more from that perspective. :-)

I am sorry about that mistake, its not competitve, rather enough to cover my expenses (not as harsh as eating Ramen noodles though). So it would be, in my opinion, substantially less than what an IBM or and Oracle will offer me.

What is this x% which will make the deal sweet?

10%?

The thing is like, you're talking a profit of like 114K on the stock options and you're going to be doing like, insane amounts of work. 100K is fairly typical, normal developer salary, right? Unless I misread the deal, I'd never do this, you could go for a 120K job and not be gambling on options at all and start having a good lifestyle right now or you could take a regular developer job and some contract on the weekends and probably work less hours in either case...

It depends on your goals and on how big you believe the company will ultimately be, and how likely you think it is to succeed, among other things.

Let's say your goal is to have "FU money." And let's say that, for you, "FU money" is, say, $4 million USD. If you believe the company will eventually be a $400 million dollar company, then 1% equity achieves your goal if the dream materializes as planned. If you only see the company as a $4 million company, then, well, the math doesn't really work out.

And note that I'm intentionally generalizing here and ignoring taxes and other factors. I'm also talking about an outright stock grant, not an option scenario. Options aren't necessarily bad, but I'd think that as the first hire and - if I understand correctly - the person who will be responsible for building (all|most) of the initial product, you should be getting some equity outright.

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