Comment by fleitz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fleitz | Hacker News Reader

I collect equity bi-weekly when I use a portion of my earnings to invest in various companies (most of whom make actual... you know, money):

I come from the fuck you pay me school of equity.

Now the startups's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? "Fuck you, pay me." Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me." Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you, pay me."

That said, I also don't care about business strategy, blah blah blah, that's up to the founders, I'm happy to add my 2cents but as a professional my job is to implement their vision. Not play venture capitalist with my time rather than my money.

Think about it, HN gets 5% for 20K, if you make $100 an hour, that's 200 hours. Imagine the typical first employee, 1-2% with a 4 year vest, that's over 8000 hours (assuming an 8 hour day, let alone the typical death march), and it's doubtful you'd come even close to $100 an hour. If you're working for equity you're paying close to 100 times the price for a much shittier class of shares.

Now on the otherhand if you take a convertible note at $20K and the founders can't raise anymore, just call your loan and grab the IP, or break even on the aquihire.

Just because the equity is likely worthless doesn't mean I want to be a cog in the machine.

I agree, I work for a salary and generally discount equity but the lack of monetary incentive doesn't mean I'm not in the game. I've always offered my opinion on business strategy and the best way to accomplish goals and I hope other early employees do the same.

Based on this, why not work as an independent consultant rather than an employee?

And you hang out on a discussion board for startups?

Different people have different opinions.

In Cuba, there's a saying among citizens, "The state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work." In the Silicon Valley startup world, the employee equivalent might as well be "The company pretends to make us owners and we pretend to work like owners."

Just because many tech startups and their employees engage in this equity charade doesn't mean that it is or should be considered a defining characteristic of a "startup."

Ignoring the fact that this board is quite a good tech board, there are loads of reasons to work for a startup while not caring about startups.

A professional needs domain knowledge even if he's not particularly fussed with the whole run-your-own-company thing.

I work for a start up that's almost entirely bootstrapped. Certainly no VC or "professional" investment.

I wouldn't hire you.

That's ok I probably wouldn't accept your offer.

Do you have any employees with FU money?

Yea the people credulous enough to believe the handwaving when the hiring manager implies your options could be worth millions one day make better employees, for a lot of reasons, and there is a good supply of them.

And you will fail.

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