Re:Don’t Tax Options and RSUs Upon Vesting
by tschellenbach on Monday November 13, 2017 @02:02PM
(#15689107)
I know many early stage employees that achieved significant financial upside by working at early stage startups. Working at an early stage startup is probably the only low-risk way of achieving that. Creating your own startup is of course always an option but requires significant upfront capital, a huge opportunity cost in terms of how much you work and a significant cut to your salary. (if anything).
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Re:Don’t Tax Options and RSUs Upon Vesting
by jsonne on Monday November 13, 2017 @02:51PM
(#15689608)
>I know many early stage employees that achieved significant financial upside by working at early stage startups .Working at an early stage startup is probably the only low-risk way of achieving that.
I mean knowing "many" is different than that being the majority of the cases, and I would strongly dispute that working at a startup is a "low risk" way of achieving some huge financial upside. I in fact remember seeing on Hacker news a few months back (I'll see if I can find it) a study that basically stated that in the aggregate employee stock options at startups aren't worth the risk.
Re:Don’t Tax Options and RSUs Upon Vesting
by atomicUpdate on Monday November 13, 2017 @03:53PM
(#15690138)
Agreed. Isn't the general advice to treat the options as worthless and always negotiate for more cash whenever possible? Then, in the rare case they are worth something it's a nice bonus, but not something that should ever be relied upon.
> low-risk way
Unless it goes bankrupt or has some other issue and you don't get paid or get fired.
I do not like this idea that startup employees aren't taking a risk. It encourages extremely one sided behavior.