I’ve worked for 5 startups now and my equity payout has been 0, 0, 0, 0, and now I stand I make low 7 figures from the equity on this last company (publicly traded now).
During those startups the following happened: - I saw my nieces and nephews so little they forgot my name. They were young, sure, but it still stung when they look at you like a stranger
- Messed up a 8+ year relationship with my significant other and we haven’t talked in years
- Let my student debt pile up to take on more equity than salary (dumbass idea for the record)
- Lost friends along the way because I could never do anything
- Missed many family/friends birthdays as I was working
- Worked 80 hour weeks for a long time
What did I feel after I saw my equity/stock rise to above 7 figures? Stupidity. I gave up a lot on my journey and money can’t get it back, in fact, the money I stand to earn doesn’t enable me to do much more than what my salary already does. I can travel, eat well, have luxury goods if I want (I’m not that type of person but anyways), and so forth.
My point being that this was a.) self-inflicted and b.) not worth the combined opportunity cost of all of those years.
So for every “friend” who made lots of money at Uber or other places, there’s a story like me or a story where someone’s never made anything from equity because profitable exits are fucking hard