The allocation of profits in startups, at least, feels... problematic.
I was the #2 engineer hire when I was hired five years ago. Since then, we haven't become super successful -- yet -- but we're at least at breakeven. We have three engineers and we're working on a huge new project that hopefully will really grow the company.
I have 1.8% equity.
Sometimes when I'm working late or working on the weekend, which is often, I wonder: Is this really worth it?
I'm totally fine with taking a pay cut to build something new, in order to have the chance at making life changing money. But at the equity I have, we'd need to be quite successful in order to get that.
The VCs who funded our seed and series A (the only funds we've raised) will see the lion's share of the profits. Emotionally, that feels odd. We've thrown a significant percentage of our lives, and they've only thrown in money -- and a pretty small amount of it, really. I know it's supposed to make sense from a financial perspective or whatever, but emotionally it doesn't feel fair.
But hey I guess it worked, I have what feels like a small percentage and yet I'm throwing everything I have at this company. I'm likely an outlier, though. I suspect that if VCs and founders gave employees a bigger piece of the pie, they'd have a much more motivated workforce.
I was the #2 engineer hire when I was hired five years ago. Since then, we haven't become super successful -- yet -- but we're at least at breakeven. We have three engineers and we're working on a huge new project that hopefully will really grow the company.
I have 1.8% equity.
Sometimes when I'm working late or working on the weekend, which is often, I wonder: Is this really worth it?
I'm totally fine with taking a pay cut to build something new, in order to have the chance at making life changing money. But at the equity I have, we'd need to be quite successful in order to get that.
The VCs who funded our seed and series A (the only funds we've raised) will see the lion's share of the profits. Emotionally, that feels odd. We've thrown a significant percentage of our lives, and they've only thrown in money -- and a pretty small amount of it, really. I know it's supposed to make sense from a financial perspective or whatever, but emotionally it doesn't feel fair.
But hey I guess it worked, I have what feels like a small percentage and yet I'm throwing everything I have at this company. I'm likely an outlier, though. I suspect that if VCs and founders gave employees a bigger piece of the pie, they'd have a much more motivated workforce.