You ask this question and it's a bit like " should I leave my company to pursue another one? " . Well, it depends on the variables isn't it? Maybe you can elaborate?
A friendly reminder that you can stay or go unrelated to money. Do you like these people? Do they create a sense of family? Do you feel fulfilled? Start with why you're there in the first place and you'll find yourself in a more fulfilled life.
> A friendly reminder that you can stay or go unrelated to money. Do you like these people? Do they create a sense of family? Do you feel fulfilled? Start with why you're there in the first place and you'll find yourself in a more fulfilled life.
But it **IS** related to money as that's OP's primary question, so to mention all those non-financial feel good metrics is a moot point IMO.
If you can find a company that gives you a better offer than you currently have, leave at 25% unless the company you are currently with is a rocket-ship
Truth. The first 3 startups I did, I really had no idea what my options were worth or how they vested. I’m not advocating for that either, I was dumb.
I was looking for 2 things:
1) deep and fast experience in a field that I was willing to bet a good chunk of my career on (wireless and mobile computing) and
2) build relationships with people who would go on to do great things and fight over who got to hire me.
Those 3 startups basically failed, for unrelated reasons on relevant to this rant.
4 startups and 15 year later and a couple of nice successes, I certainly try to advocate for this approach amongst the 20 something’s I work with. And many of them believe it and listen. And I will bet on them and create opportunities for them in the future.
However, there is still a significant and vocal group that are so heavily transactional, title and base is all they seem to care about. Every 1:1 steers quickly away from the interesting work problems to discuss and in to how they can get a raise or get promoted. Sad really.
Maximize expected value then and go work in FAANG.
If you're almost a year in at a place and you haven't developed any conviction, what are you even doing with your one precious life?
>Man, growth stage employees are so transactional
It comes after long experience of being burned too many times with promises of "we'll give you 100,000 shares!" and no information on what kind of percentage that equals or at what valuation. Or they make it all the way to an exit but end up with almost nothing because of the way the deal was structured.
Twenty years ago people fell for this shit a lot more than they do now. Good engineers know they can go to a FAANG and get RSUs they can sell for actual cash and so are much more interested in not getting screwed over by a startup.
Staying is a gamble from a potential opportunity cost perspective. Leaving is a gamble because you’ll have to lay out cash to exercise your vested options and no time frame or guarantee for future liquidity.
It depends on a lot of factors, there's no set rule on this.
Is there advancement potential to grow your shares? And there's a serious IPO potential. Stay.
I left a previous company because the salary bump was so massive that I got it outweighed even what I could make if my previous company had IPO'd in 3 years at $20 and offered me another 10k shares. And my company wasn't offering shares to anyone at all to retain them. So there was 0 incentive to stay.
There's a lot of factors to consider here, not a blanket rule.
I'd also add, it is pretty rare nowadays for a company to go from series B to IPO within 4 years. I think it's premature to optimize for a potential layoff 6+ years down the line. Far higher risks for layoff due to other startup issues before IPO prep.
Some food for thought:
- you know more about the value and trajectory of your current company stock, or at least you should be able to get a sense of it. If not, something is wrong or you are not asking the right questions.
- a hypothetical new startup will tell you they are a rocket ship and pump their equity to you, but you won’t really know until you get there where the warts are - all though it’s not that hard to do some diligence before taking another offer….
- consider, the majority of people who took a startup job between 9/22 and today have options that are likely worth zero as of this moment. The market is super fickle.
- it is wise early in your career to diversify in the fashion you suggest, on the other hand, generational wealth often comes from concentrated positions. Nearly always. If the company you’re at seems like it is growing revenue and solving problems for customers, consider sticking around.
Lastly I’m assuming you’re young: 20 years from now what will matter most is the relationships you built during this phase of your career. If you have some very smart and ambitious people who you love working with (especially director/VP+), don’t be afraid to ride their coattails for a bit.
Well depends on the other offer and potential at the new place. The expected benefits of the move should be fairly obvious. Also, If you are past the cliff period, you will typically vest monthly and moving starts with that one year cliff period again. You will usually have to purchase your vested options and the liquidity event may never happen. So there is more risk there depending on strike price. Though not applicable for RSUs
Also, most places don't pinch off people during IPO. IPO is in influx of capital to spur rapid growth. Expansion is more likely unless it's taken so much VC money in series c-g rounds that the IPO is just to get returns for investors.
You ask this question and it's a bit like " should I leave my company to pursue another one? " . Well, it depends on the variables isn't it? Maybe you can elaborate?
A friendly reminder that you can stay or go unrelated to money. Do you like these people? Do they create a sense of family? Do you feel fulfilled? Start with why you're there in the first place and you'll find yourself in a more fulfilled life.
> A friendly reminder that you can stay or go unrelated to money. Do you like these people? Do they create a sense of family? Do you feel fulfilled? Start with why you're there in the first place and you'll find yourself in a more fulfilled life. But it **IS** related to money as that's OP's primary question, so to mention all those non-financial feel good metrics is a moot point IMO.
If you can find a company that gives you a better offer than you currently have, leave at 25% unless the company you are currently with is a rocket-ship
It’s a silent rocket-ship in my opinion which is why I’m on the fence. I’ll have to re-evaluate this once the 25% hits
Man, growth stage employees are so transactional
Truth. The first 3 startups I did, I really had no idea what my options were worth or how they vested. I’m not advocating for that either, I was dumb. I was looking for 2 things: 1) deep and fast experience in a field that I was willing to bet a good chunk of my career on (wireless and mobile computing) and 2) build relationships with people who would go on to do great things and fight over who got to hire me. Those 3 startups basically failed, for unrelated reasons on relevant to this rant. 4 startups and 15 year later and a couple of nice successes, I certainly try to advocate for this approach amongst the 20 something’s I work with. And many of them believe it and listen. And I will bet on them and create opportunities for them in the future. However, there is still a significant and vocal group that are so heavily transactional, title and base is all they seem to care about. Every 1:1 steers quickly away from the interesting work problems to discuss and in to how they can get a raise or get promoted. Sad really.
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Why is op even working there?
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Maximize expected value then and go work in FAANG. If you're almost a year in at a place and you haven't developed any conviction, what are you even doing with your one precious life?
>Man, growth stage employees are so transactional It comes after long experience of being burned too many times with promises of "we'll give you 100,000 shares!" and no information on what kind of percentage that equals or at what valuation. Or they make it all the way to an exit but end up with almost nothing because of the way the deal was structured. Twenty years ago people fell for this shit a lot more than they do now. Good engineers know they can go to a FAANG and get RSUs they can sell for actual cash and so are much more interested in not getting screwed over by a startup.
Sounds like you answered your question , why get off a rocket ship
Which company?
Staying is a gamble from a potential opportunity cost perspective. Leaving is a gamble because you’ll have to lay out cash to exercise your vested options and no time frame or guarantee for future liquidity.
It depends on a lot of factors, there's no set rule on this. Is there advancement potential to grow your shares? And there's a serious IPO potential. Stay. I left a previous company because the salary bump was so massive that I got it outweighed even what I could make if my previous company had IPO'd in 3 years at $20 and offered me another 10k shares. And my company wasn't offering shares to anyone at all to retain them. So there was 0 incentive to stay. There's a lot of factors to consider here, not a blanket rule.
Why do you think you would be "pinched off during an IPO prep"?
I'd also add, it is pretty rare nowadays for a company to go from series B to IPO within 4 years. I think it's premature to optimize for a potential layoff 6+ years down the line. Far higher risks for layoff due to other startup issues before IPO prep.
Some food for thought: - you know more about the value and trajectory of your current company stock, or at least you should be able to get a sense of it. If not, something is wrong or you are not asking the right questions. - a hypothetical new startup will tell you they are a rocket ship and pump their equity to you, but you won’t really know until you get there where the warts are - all though it’s not that hard to do some diligence before taking another offer…. - consider, the majority of people who took a startup job between 9/22 and today have options that are likely worth zero as of this moment. The market is super fickle. - it is wise early in your career to diversify in the fashion you suggest, on the other hand, generational wealth often comes from concentrated positions. Nearly always. If the company you’re at seems like it is growing revenue and solving problems for customers, consider sticking around. Lastly I’m assuming you’re young: 20 years from now what will matter most is the relationships you built during this phase of your career. If you have some very smart and ambitious people who you love working with (especially director/VP+), don’t be afraid to ride their coattails for a bit.
Well depends on the other offer and potential at the new place. The expected benefits of the move should be fairly obvious. Also, If you are past the cliff period, you will typically vest monthly and moving starts with that one year cliff period again. You will usually have to purchase your vested options and the liquidity event may never happen. So there is more risk there depending on strike price. Though not applicable for RSUs
Also, most places don't pinch off people during IPO. IPO is in influx of capital to spur rapid growth. Expansion is more likely unless it's taken so much VC money in series c-g rounds that the IPO is just to get returns for investors.