Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by blihp on Friday October 25, 2019 @08:16PM
(#21360531)
The title is not a meaningful gauge of a person's knowledge or experience. It wouldn't be unheard of for a VP at a company with 50 employees to have similar responsibilities as a manager at a company with 1000 employees. They could also be VP of Engineering/Customer Service/etc. which would typically not be expected to have much, if any, legal or finance knowledge.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by krn on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:58AM
(#21362815)
> They could also be VP of Engineering/Customer Service/etc. which would typically not be expected to have much, if any, legal or finance knowledge.
That's in the article:
> Four years ago, I landed a VP of engineering job at a red hot startup, for which I was granted options for 2% of the company.
That person could have easily been a Senior Software Engineer at FAANG before becoming a VP of engineering at a startup.
How much do Level 5 engineers at Google know about liquidation preferences if they have never worked at a startup before?
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by harryh on Friday October 25, 2019 @08:37PM
(#21360672)
Ya, I'm not saying I'm 100% confident in my assessment. Just saying that reading it feels pretty fishy.
Just my opinion.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by kevinskii on Friday October 25, 2019 @07:10PM
(#21360134)
It could be. But small companies often give their employees inflated titles, where a "VP" is actually a small team lead with no executive responsibilities.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by xpWr7r1ZeX on Saturday October 26, 2019 @09:47AM
(#21363639)
Titles are usually based on area of responsibility, at a small company you may have a small number people or no people but still have the responsibility... it's just enough for one person to handle. So it's not bad to have a VP of Engineering only manage 4 ppl.... but if everyone things a VP of Engineering is the same at small or large companies that's uninformed of reality. Title inflation helps recruit... so add that on to this as well and it's confusing. Not saying it's right, but that's how it is.
Actually, there is immense title inflation at large companies as well, just depends which company and field. Have you seen the number of VPs in the Finance industry in NYC?
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by IggleSniggle on Friday October 25, 2019 @08:19PM
(#21360555)
Exactly. The entirety of the company roster could easily be 5 people and still have someone with a title like that.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by brianwawok on Saturday October 26, 2019 @09:16AM
(#21363462)
Most people I know who work in startups don’t know this stuff. Most people I know that run startups do know this. The knowledge gap is huge.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by Hex-3-En on Saturday October 26, 2019 @05:52AM
(#21362804)
"VP of engineering", not Business, you need to look closer before writing something like your theories...
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by techslave on Friday October 25, 2019 @10:25PM
(#21361260)
yes it’s obviously a setup. just like “FAQ”s are not normally FA’d before being answered.
doesn’t take away from the article.
Re:My company sold for $100M and I got zilch – how can that be?
by ScottBurson on Friday October 25, 2019 @09:35PM
(#21361017)
My thought as well.
> He has no idea how liquidation preferences work
> He was "told" that the company was being acquired (instead of being involved in the sale)
> No one at the company walked him through how his stock was valued, even after the acquisition. To the point that he thinks he needs to hire a lawyer.
It's a fine question to use as a lead in to explaining how stock options work, and that's a fine thing to write about. But I'd bet money that the author made up the question.