
Employee Stock Options as Explained By an English Major - shawndumas
http://thebillfold.com/2014/02/employee-stock-options-as-explained-by-an-english-major/
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MarkPNeyer
the article is decent from the perspective of an "english major" but it
unfortunately embodies many falsehoods perpetuated by wealthy people (VC's)
and believing these unquestioningly will fuck you.

stock options are not a lot of money. they're just not. unless you're employee
#5 at dropbox or something, you really aren't going to become super wealthy
off of your start-up options, and you most certainly will make more money
working for a bigger company.

this isn't to say "don't work at a startup" \- it's more like, "don't work at
a startup because you think you'll become wealthy." work at a startup because
you believe in what the company does and you want to just get things done
without red tape and excessive meetings and other crap. just don't think
you'll get rich working for someone else; it's possible, but very unlikely.

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gaius
Twice, I have had stock options, as an employee in the low-10s at small
companies. Company 1 IPO'd in the dotcom boom, my options that had actually
vested came to maybe 6 months worth of my then-salary. A nice chunk o'change
to be sure, but buying a house? No way. Paid off my student debt, had a couple
of very nice vacations. By the time the rest vested, they were underwater.

Here's the kicker: employee #1 was a good friend of mine and we did a show-me-
yours-show-you-mine. He got exactly the same as I had. Huh.

Second time, small company acquired by much larger public company. Again,
about 6 months worth it worked out to, tho' of course my salary was abit
higher then. Paid the deposit on my first flat which was nice, and some
furniture and a fancy TV, but very, very far from buying the flat outright for
cash.

Nowadays I work for a giant corporation, my salary is actually just over the
salaries from those two jobs combined, and stock options are of zero interest
to me.

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redditivist
This person might think they have a grasp of stock options, but it's like
saying a 5 year old understands shipping logistics, freight tariffs and export
restrictions because someone explained how a propeller works.

> This is why people shittier than you always want to “get in on the ground
> floor.”

This clearly shows that this person didn't believe they gave a good input into
the company or that they weren't deserving of stock options.

They don't truly understand the incentives they offer in a competitive
employment market.

Shoe-horning ignorance into a blog post. Eugh.

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alxndr
TL;DR: "Always join a company before the lawyers do."

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elgabogringo
That was really loooong.

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qrybam
Easy read though

~~~
gaius
Small vocabulary.

