Re:Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation
by h4b4n3r0 on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @09:34PM
(#17721083)
Yes, that’s another excuse that will inevitably be fielded: that those are “market” terms. It was tried in my case. Miraculously I ended up getting everything I wanted the moment I told them I was going to leave. Now, my negotiating position was unusually strong, and normally I wouldn’t get everything I wanted, but “market” is such a bullshit excuse in the case of early, core employees that it should be dismissed out of hand. Truly “market” terms are what you manage to negotiate. That having been said I didn’t actually request anything extraordinary.
Re:Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation
by tptacek on Thursday August 09, 2018 @04:25AM
(#17722478)
Who are you talking to? I'm not the one telling you to accept contracts you don't want to accept. By all means, ask for stuff. But: my experience is, the fine-toothed-comb people end up asking for things that the company can't give, and then take to Twitter about the "red flags" they've identified, and all I'm saying is that it's a bad look.
The legal wrangling, for most engineers, isn't going to do anything to improve the bottom line. Leaving and picking better companies, on the other hand, might.
Re:Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation
by hkmurakami on Thursday August 09, 2018 @02:15AM
(#17721969)
Couldn’t agree more. I like to say that all we have in this industry is trust in the founder.
The questions, I think, have to come down to:
* Do you trust the team? Did you check references? That includes that of their investors.
* How tolerant are you of risk? The biggest risk with startups is, of course, that equity will be worth zero. The contract risk you're talking about is comparatively marginal. People get screwed by contracts, yes, of course. It's worth being wary. But for every startup engineer screwed by contracts, 20 have been screwed by investing years of their lives into companies that fell over and died. Keep perspective.
I am very sympathetic to employees minding their rights in these equity transactions. I don't think equity is a particularly good deal for employees most of the time. But I've noticed a pathology with some people who are super microscope-and-tweezers about these kinds of contract terms. It's not always a great look. Better instead to be someone who can look at the total package (maybe with input from your lawyer) and make a snap decision: do I believe in this opportunity, for me, or not? Obviously, the bigger problem in our field is that people want to believe way too much.