Funding winter has taught us that cash is king. How should one negotiate ESOPs now that it is clear that almost all unicorns are overvalued? Startups are still peddling ESOPs to new employees at 2021 valuation which will get corrected sooner or later.
It is rare to see buybacks and IPOs in India. I have seen VPs and early employees hold millions in paper money waiting for a way to cash it since 5-10 years.
Transitioning to a public company like the FAANGs makes your salary 2x automatically since the stocks become relevant
Public stocks also come with a risk.
A friend joined coinbase when it's stock price was more than 300$, now it's around 50$. His stock component went from 20 lpa to less than 3 lpa.
Same with many other publicly listed companies.
Cash is definitely the king. So high base is important and RSUs/ESOPs doesn't benefit most of the people.
Risk is there but at least u can cash out
Yes
Yes totally
Half your ESOP(based on valuation correction by BlackRock for Indian start-ups) and yes then it may be useful
After reading this article, it seems like early players who have become big had the fortune of liquidity. What do you think about more recent startups in last 5yrs or so?
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/esop-cashout-events-...
My profile: EX. Founder turned Product+ strategy person YOE: 5+ ESOPs: 80 lakhs Cliff: 1 year Vesting period: 48 months
I am still thinking after how many years it will be valuable given the liquidity is very rare for ESOPs. Any thoughts?
Offered 0.2% ESOPs at a pre-revenue startup. Founder says “we’re the next Razorpay.” How do I evaluate this?
I have 6 years experience. My current base/fixed is 60 LPA. (I also got a 5 lakh bonus and 5 lakh of my ESOPs vested this year making my total vested about 30 lakh. So the total comp is 70).
I'm being offered a senior engineer positi...