

How can you determine how much your stock will get diluted when joining startup? - locustin

Hi, I have received an offer from a startup, let&#x27;s say the startup has 50M shares outstanding and is valued at 300 million. If I get offered 20K in stock options over 4 years, and they are at series c funding, any figures on how much I can assume my stock will get diluted by the time they go public? how can I tell if i&#x27;m getting a good deal?
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svisser
Are you happy with the salary offered and what you'll be working on?

Given the company's valuation these two things will be more important than the
stock options.

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lnanek2
Usually the dilution doesn't matter because the valuation goes up so much each
funding event that you still end up ahead in total value. If it doesn't, well,
that is usually the company failing, not you getting cheated.

It is possible to have the ability added to your contract to let you bail out
on any funding event, this is usually only given to executives, however.

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jeffmould
Don't put all your eggs in one basket on the stock options. As @svisser
pointed out, are you happy with the company, what you will be working on, your
salary, and benefits. Those are immediate rewards for your work and matter
most. At this point in the company's life, your options are more a formality
than anything.

Even if the company does go public, you are probably several years away from
that happening, and who knows if you will still be at the company or still
like the job. In addition, by that point you will have also probably
(hopefully) received some additional grants along the way to even things out.

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chrisbennet
Dilution really doesn't matter that much - your chances of getting _anything_
are vanishingly small.

