enigmatic02

Disagreed with 5, it's too prescriptive. Lots of great writers use progressive disclosure to keep people hooked

Being unselfish also helps with building great products. Reminds me of this article, treat your reader like a customer: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/improve-business-writ...

Ya I sometimes just keep track of newsletters I like in a doc, then make the rounds when I'm in a reading mood

VC capital is useful assuming it's a winner-takes-all / capital-intensive market, but many markets are not, in which case optimizing for $ raised is actually a distraction

Example: Delicious was sold to bootstrapped competitor, Pinboard for only $35K. Pinboard is still around to this day

https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/pinboard-delicious-fa...

No company is incentivized to do what's sustainable for society

Cost $300K total: $100K to exercise, $200K in paper gains. Looks like it will pay off bc valuation has continued to go up, but the 90-day exercise window is punishing for cashflow.

Didn't know about 83b election, didn't make use of QSBS exemption; learnings here: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/how-stock-options-for...

Found this useful 1:1 template a while back: https://giddy-amusement-c74.notion.site/Manage-your-manager-...

Ya although $162M is not that much, barely a mark-up from the last round

Google, Airbnb

Yes those matter to selecting any company, but equity % does as well

Startups and VCs have long had really good data on what to pay people. Like that this is now being made public!

100%

Lol the second question is pretty loaded. The point is to find a startup that has proven potential, not a total dud

When it's worth it, it's very very worth it. Whether it's the right thing for you depends on your risk appetite and financial situation.

Some people say: go to big tech first, make $, get the brand, then take the startup risk

Reality is: longer you wait to take risks, harder it becomes. Recommend doing it sometime in your 20s if the adventure appeals to you, knowing that the big equity payout may not happen. You can improve your odds though by getting good at picking

Simplenote. it's not made for links though, just notes

1. Mostly through referrals / people they know / sometimes investor intros 2. Lol some are good, most probably don't make a difference 3. Easy to coach, strong work ethic, can start contributing from day 1

More importantly for you, picking the right startup is most of the battle. Make sure you research and interview them; if they don't blow you away, you're better off in a bigger tech company that pays more

If you are interested in startups, this list lets you track the portfolios of Tier 1 investors: https://topstartups.io/

You raise a great point: does it make sense for highly compensated tech talent to bet on startups with their time / labor?

Ultimately, decision depends on what you are solving for. If it's purely about $ in the hand, startups never make sense.

If it's about participating in potential massive upside, investing is a perfectly good choice.

Difference between investing vs. joining startup is that you get to build stuff from scratch and operate more like a business owner. You'll do more and learn more in a shorter period of time. This makes a ton of sense IF you like that sort of adventure. Also allows you learn on someone else's dime before you start your own business

If you're joining VC-backed startup, the outcome they'll be shooting for is $1B+ exits, and you can get 2-3% equity if you join early.... so there's that

You can find comparable salary and equity offers here: https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

Do you have benchmarks of what people like you are getting paid?

https://www.levels.fyi/ is useful for big tech, https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/ is useful for startups

Also helps to give examples of how your work grew the business (specific #s ideal) - sometimes the PM will remember the numbers that you can borrow :)

The VC-backed startups tend to get help from their investors by getting listed in portfolio sites, funding news etc.

There's also lists that aggregate top startups: - https://topstartups.io/ - https://www.breakoutlist.com/

Guy's name is Ryan King (not his real last name), and his handle is Ryan Takes Off elsewhere...

Almost certainly some truth to this, but majorly blown out of proportion

For anyone interested in non-exec roles at startups, there's hundreds of salary and equity data points here: https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

I worked there and had to leave.

$ is good, sometimes the team can be good, but there are lot of drawbacks: coworkers are spoiled, learning is stunted because most things are taken care of, more about solving people problems than product problems as you move up, more about performing for specific individuals rather than helping customers, scope is limited, etc.

This article resonated with me: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/why-harvard-faang-ove...

Only worth it if these founders are the smartest people you've ever met, and you think you'll learn a lot more with them than with your current team

Leaving FAANG is a reversible door, so you can always go back, but don't quit just because the founders are recruiting you. They need to win you over big-time

Also make sure you're paid right. Here's a database of startup salary & equity: topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

My two cents: be specific about what you want to learn

It's a good way to get recruited, but no you can definitely get away with resumes and referrals into jobs without a linkedin profile.

LinkedIn is also better for big tech, hard to do research on smaller startups. For that, I prefer using crunchbase and topstartups.io

I've seen this happen a lot. 9 times out of 10, it's actually not about your specific job performance, but actually about setting expectations (which it turns out, IS part of your job)

Your boss doesn't know all the details, but they see the end result (a delay), so they jump in and critique everything in sight.

What they probably need is to be looped in throughout the project and made aware of major decisions that change the end result or whatever it is that they care about (timeline / impact of the work).

Here's a template I use for managing expectations upwards: https://www.notion.so/Manage-your-manager-26a26b82bd824f97bf...

Favorite part of the Pinboard story is how they beat Delicious, a well-funded startup and was sassy af along the way: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/pinboard-delicious-fa...

Joined a high-growth startup, got promoted quickly, then FAANG came knocking. Interviews were surprisingly easy because I had so much experience interviewing other people at the startup, and plenty of stories to share

Here's a list of high-growth startups for those looking: https://topstartups.io/

I've been using this tool to benchmark startup and equity: https://topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/

You're not alone, a lot of people don't understand the contract they sign (myself included). The first thing to know is that the contract isn't designed with you in mind. It protects the company by default. There are companies like secfi (https://www.secfi.com/) etc. that specialize in answering questions and have lots of free content

As for whether it can be "life-changing", yes. I know a number of people who are liquid/paper multimillionaires from startup equity. It's one of the few ways to build a ton of wealth. Hard to get this rich on salary alone

TLDR on equity is try to get a 10-year exercise window so if you leave the company before a liquidity event, you're not forced to come up with a ton of cash to buy them out or give them up: https://www.productlessons.xyz/article/how-stock-options-for...

Nearly all employees leave equity on table by virtue of not staying for 4 years, but many more simply can't afford to exercise which is far more disappointing

Ah the sanitization links were great, thanks!

Do you plan on handling sanitization of roles so people can search by that? I ended up using a LONG case when statement to group roles into buckets, probably not ideal

Doing something similar to you, but focused on startups and jobs funded by Tier 1 investors: https://topstartups.io/