"At big companies, you can expect to get ~$400k-$500k of stock"
Where did you get that figure from? That's a bit surprising to me, there's no way you could get that kind of stock grant as an engineer in any of the big companies I've worked at.
Where did you get that figure from? That's a bit surprising to me, there's no way you could get that kind of stock grant as an engineer in any of the big companies I've worked at.
Risk-adjusted returns for startup equity aren't even close to accurate ("let's assume that you're one of the lucky few" isn't a good estimation strategy).
With a 4 year vesting schedule, $200k in stock is fairly normal and $400k is not unusual for a senior hire.
Acquihires and very rare skill holders or more senior roles? Higher -- if your friends of either of these, then maybe.
All that being said, money is terrible motivation for working at startup, unless you are the founder and CEO. I left said company after 6 months because the team was dissolving and terribly mismanaged. I had several offers, but the one I went with gave the lowest salary. The draw was that everyone I interviewed with extremely sharp and friendly and that the CEO would allow me to work remotely while I sailed around the world after a year and a half.
That said, there's a sufficient sample of such folks that I am very willing to believe that such numbers are entirely reasonable, and not hard to get.