

What do you think of this equity offer? - throwawyxyz

I was offered 20,000 options at a strike price of $3.14 on a total share base of about 75 million (probably about 0.025%). As far as I can gather the company is valued at around $175MM, and they have a few hundred employees. I would be going in as a Senior Engineer (4 years experience).<p>Base pay would be around $115K.
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codeonfire
You are missing some information needed to value these options. You need the
vesting period, expiration, some measure of volatility, rate of return.

I really don't understand why companies do these tiny option plans. No one is
going to kill themselves working nights and weekends just so they can buy a
new car or something in ten years. Does it really matter if the value is $50k
or $150k? You want a plan to become a major holder in a successful business.
20k options are wonderful if all you ever see yourself as for the next ten
years is a rank and file employee. Personally, I would just ignore it and find
some start-up partners. It's table scraps. Its like the owners saying "if you
help us make hundreds of millions of dollars, we'll maybe help you pay off
your crappy condo"

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thejteam
Mind if I ask where you are located and what you are doing? I know job titles
are meaningless but where does it only take 4 years experience to be a senior
engineer and earn 115K? I have 10 years and I'm still a few years away from
being considered a senior engineer. I'm not in California, but DC area doesn't
exactly have the lowest cost of living either and I don't make 115K.

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djb_hackernews
Every place I've been you make senior engineer by your 3rd year. It usually
looks something like I->II->Senior->Principal->Senior Principal->Architect for
purely technical roles.

I live in DC and I can tell you, if you have 10 years experience, and you
aren't at least senior and/or you don't make 115k, something is VERY wrong.

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damoncali
Don't know about the offer, but do you have $62,800 laying around to exercise
the options should it come to that? Make sure it makes sense from a cash flow
and tax point of view.

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_delirium
On the cash-on-hand point, many brokers won't require you to actually front
the cash, and will instead let you pay for the exercise cost out of immediate
proceeds of selling the resulting shares, as one netted-out transaction. For
example, here's Fidelity's info:
[http://personal.fidelity.com/products/stockoptions/exercise....](http://personal.fidelity.com/products/stockoptions/exercise.shtml)

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debacle
Base pay sounds very reasonable for a senior engineering position. The options
sound like icing.

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jaxn
75mm shares at a 175mm valuation means a share price of $2.33. Shouldn't the
strike price be at the current valuation?

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tanitall
not familiar, but I assume the company is public and there is a period of time
needed before being vested?

