
Ask HN: Startup Equity Expectation - throwaway2017
I am exploring a engineering position as Employee No 1 at a 3 month old startup which will be looking for product market fit in about 3 months. Founders have raised $2M in the seed round. What kind of equity should I be looking at given that I would be taking close to $150-$200 K hit in my total  liquid compensation?
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mswen
Lets say that the annual liquid compensation difference is $200K. At minimum,
I would ask for equity that matches $300K (18 months at the difference) at the
same valuation as investors in the seed round received. Coming on as an
employee at this point is at least as risky as the investors putting in money
at this point.

Even after negotiating that equity stake you should be fully prepared to write
it off as a loss and move on in 18 months to 2 years. Most start-ups will not
succeed in significant manner.

