Re:Ask HN: Reasonable equity for early employees?
by elbrodeur on Saturday January 15, 2011 @12:32PM
(#2107337)
I'll second this. Unless you're joining as CTO/VP of Engineering, 1% seems like a very generous grant.
By all means, you should try to negotiate for more, but as the first employee at one startup and the third at another I was never given more than about .5% initially, with additional grants later on as reward for high performance and to help offset some dilution in later rounds.
Your risk profile may be lower than theirs, but I would take 1% as a signal that they really really really want you. I can guarantee they are not going to be giving employees 5-10 anywhere near 1%.
By all means, you should try to negotiate for more, but as the first employee at one startup and the third at another I was never given more than about .5% initially, with additional grants later on as reward for high performance and to help offset some dilution in later rounds.
Your risk profile may be lower than theirs, but I would take 1% as a signal that they really really really want you. I can guarantee they are not going to be giving employees 5-10 anywhere near 1%.