A company that doesn't give you a living wage is indeed screwing you over if they don't make it up elsewhere.
>> A startup only works if you get really motivated people to sacrifice a good portion of their lifetime to work for you.
Either pay them for their work, or take them on as founders with founder level equity. Then you all float or sink together.
Employees who sell their time at low rates with the "hope" that they'll get rewarded on the day of sale (but without an agreement) are, well, bad at business. Hope is not a good strategy.
I completely agree that employees who pour in their time for little salary, and no formal equity, then they are fools.
Incidentally, if you think anything below Fang level salary is "low" then your thinking is too binary. Salaries are a continuum. There's no long long way between making a good living and Fang.
>Employees who sell their time at low rates with the "hope" that they'll get rewarded on the day of sale (but without an agreement) are, well, bad at business. Hope is not a good strategy.
They may be bad at business, but we were talking about joining a friend's startup here. If they're indeed your friend they wouldn't try screwing you over like this. And if you're joining a random startup, then of course be aware that most are trying to screw you over.
My point was rather that startup level salaries without equity _are_ being screwed over. Nobody expects the founders to give the same amount of equity to all employees. Of course the founder has an outsize risk here. But the employees do face a lot of risks with startups as well, so they should get some level of equity to match that. Otherwise they don't get any reward for that risk. Which is again, being screwed over. And also they usually have to invest more time in the startup than a normal corporate job, so that should be reflected in the equity they get, since most startups don't have the funds to reflect it in high salaries.
>Incidentally, if you think anything below Fang level salary is "low" then your thinking is too binary. Salaries are a continuum. There's no long long way between making a good living and Fang.
No, I was thinking about normal big corporate salaries. I don't live in the US though, so maybe that influences this. They usually offer more work-life balance, low risk, and a better salary than most startups.
>> A startup only works if you get really motivated people to sacrifice a good portion of their lifetime to work for you.
Either pay them for their work, or take them on as founders with founder level equity. Then you all float or sink together.
Employees who sell their time at low rates with the "hope" that they'll get rewarded on the day of sale (but without an agreement) are, well, bad at business. Hope is not a good strategy.
I completely agree that employees who pour in their time for little salary, and no formal equity, then they are fools.
Incidentally, if you think anything below Fang level salary is "low" then your thinking is too binary. Salaries are a continuum. There's no long long way between making a good living and Fang.