

Ask HN: Should I join a company that raised Series C funding?  - ell

The company raised about $30M total (15 million in Series C), but still haven't made it big yet. They been in business since 2008 but they are less know.<p>What is the chance of survival for a company that has already raised Series C funding but still hasn't made big yet?
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navishjain
I hate this when startup does not reveal all the information to the hiring
candidates.

Other than the founders, investors, advisors, disruptive product, humongous
market, revenue stream (past/present/future), business model; the obvious
thing is your offer.

Different components that include an offer is salary, perks (not food but
medical insurance/plans, dental/vision,), yearly bonus if any (generally
speaking startups do not have yearly bonus unless they are doing great on
revenues but if they would be then they do not need money to raise), signon
bonus (do not give too much importance since its one time) and the MAJOR
component is the equity.

10,000 shares sounds like a lot but what does it exactly mean.

The company has 1M outstanding shares. That means 10,000 shares is equal to 1%
of the company at that particular time. If the company goes and raises some
more money, the company gets diluted which means additional shares are issued.
Lets say with a round of financing, 100K shares were added. SO now you own (1M
+ 100K)/10000 = 0.9% of the company. What just happened is with the same no of
shares your % in the company got reduced. So now the company will have to make
a bigger exit in order for you to earn that money.

So go and ask the recruiter, what are the no of outstanding shares.

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kposehn
It's not necessarily the funding round or age you should be considering. Look
at the people, the product, the market and traction to make your decisions.

Do you like working there? Are the founders fully involved? Are the customers
happy? Is it a great product in a growing market?

Series C doesn't mean a company won't succeed; they could easily be on the
growth path and using additional capital to finance expansion. Don't write
them off prematurely but do your due diligence as well :)

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ruchitg
No one have answer to this. If they have recently raised alot of money, they
may have some change in plans which might make it 'big'.

Join if you like work, salary and scope.

