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Comment by throwpop | Hacker News Reader

>> How much salary and equity should you expect from startups at different stages?

Does anyone have any insight to share on this?

What are the odds of getting a 6 figure salary at a startup?

It is close to physically impossible before series A at the majority of startups (exception for ones which achieve significant profitability early, but that's fairly rare in the Valley) and "it depends" after Series A. As always, sought after people whose skills provably make money and who negotiate better get better outcomes. (A little bird tells me than in certain disciplines mostly related to technical marketing proven people are getting contracting rates in the $X0,000 per month region. This strikes me as highly credible given what I know about those markets.)

Equity works in reverse: the more mature the company, the less you get. Ask the YC crowd for good numbers on that.

The odds are very good.

That's the one thing I really like about AngelList's job board (http://angel.co/jobs) – most startups list salary and equity ranges.

Thanks! After looking over the postings and realizing my W-2 from my Fortune 1000 IT job is more than any salary range listed, I think its time for me to sunset my 'work at a startup' dream, given my age(31), family, kids, mortgage, etc.

Bootstrapping my own looks like the only viable option for me. Now if I could only find an idea worth pursuing..

I have tons of ideas sitting around that I don't have time to execute on. I'll throw out two, have fun with them:

* taking advantage of modern technology ecosystem, replace the US Congress

* provide a replacement for the traditional movie theater experience that keeps all the good things, eliminates the bad things, and maybe adds in a few extra good things, especially taking advantage of the modern technology ecosystem

I have easily 20 more. But have time/body/money/energy constraints, and so have to prioritize. :)

Man, it does good to know that I'm not he only one it that situation, being one year younger I can understand it pretty good. Bad luck it took me a while to realize that a start-up was what I really wanted, mostl thanks to Paul Grahams essays. Well, maybe it's all about timing, and there I'm utterly convinced that even when you are older the timing will be right one day. The trick is to realize it.

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