article thumbnail

Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad

Steve Blank

VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Why Startups Offer Stock Options. This “we’re all in it together” kept founders and employees aligned on incentives. Here’s why.

article thumbnail

8 Questions You Should Ask Before You Join A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

One more key employee or one more investor will probably not turn the situation around. Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

8 Red Flags To Evaluate Before Pledging To A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

One more key employee or one more investor will probably not turn the situation around. Every startup should have at least a couple of outside advisors who are not major investors or family members, anxious to talk to new investors and key new hires. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary.

article thumbnail

Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2

Steve Blank

Most of her lessons were applicable to any government employee venturing out to the private sector. At first many start-ups hire a lobbying firm. Larger companies hiring a Chief of Staff often look for someone who has an MBA, experience with one of the big consulting firms, or experience doing the job already.

article thumbnail

CMO CTO COO Equity and Compensation

SoCal CTO

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate. Quick & Dirty How-To: Employee Stock Option Allocations Seed Stage Compensation What are typical compensation numbers?

CTO Hire 329
article thumbnail

Should You Offer Equity Compensation to Employees?

Up and Running

If you’re thinking about extending equity to an employee or a vendor (as in the example above), you should know that the topic is multi-faceted. If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Finding great employees first.

Equity 60
article thumbnail

Your need for a board grows with complexity.

Berkonomics

The number of employees grows. And then company grows… Once the company hits high growth or larger size, it is logical to follow the standard practice in the creation of two standing committees composed of outside board members (not employees or executives) – the compensation committee and the audit committee.