Product Manager

Depends on the risk profiles of the company and employee 
  
 In general with startup ESOPs: A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush (aka take the cash)

Chief of Staff

If ESOPs are being bought back it’s to sell to a bidder at a higher price . Who is acquiring your startup?

Senior Program Manager

Is it Rephrase.Ai? 
 Read that it was acquired by Adobe

Software Developer

Head Of Marketing

Founder

A friend of mine just got a ESOP buyback opportunity. Thing to note here is that the startup is just under 3 Years Old. Thoughts?

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

ESOP Buyback

Program Manager

ESOP Buyback- Grapevine

Fast learning and fast paced growth aside, after 15 years of MNC experience  I joined a startup to get some ESOPs.. and hopefully a good buyback ..

I have worked in 2 startups now.Both of these were already  Unicorns when I joined .


While I love the culture and dynamic pace of a startup 
i feel my chances of getting a payout  are slim...

My personal learning is to get a good reward you have to be in top 10 employees for sure ... otherwise it's not worth it ..

There is no point joining a Unicorn in middle management...or second in command in any function...

Happy to hear your thoughts !

Share your ESOP buyback story..

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

Product Analyst at faang+ 
CTC - 20.5 lpa full cash

Vs

APM at Series C (climate tech Startup)
CTC - 27.5 lpa ( cash + ESOP)

Which one is better for career progression
Like APM at a startup or a PA in big MNC

Salary comparison

Growth Manager

I’m considering joining as a founding engineer at an early stage startup who is just about to sign a $4M seed round.

They offered to match my current base and a $20,000 in ESOPs. 

When joining at such early stage companies, how should I think of ESOPs so that I can better negotiate. I’m banking on this idea going big and I want to get as much ESOPs as possible to maximise my returns in the future.

ESOPs in early stage startups

Software Engineer

Hello guys,
I would want to know what is the benefit of getting ESOPs in an early stage startup?
The startup has a great team and working on a promising product. 
I have been offered a package with somewhat lower fixed component and somewhat higher ESOPs. Need insightful pointers here. TIA :)

Value of ESOPs in early stage startups?

The ESOP is a bit of a blind bet.  
  
 It's paper money that can get you a windfall if all goes to plan and execution, solution, pricing, market readiness amongst other things, all line up over the next few years.  
  
 I wouldn't take a pay cut in lieu of ESOPs.  Keep the real money real and the paper money as an outside bet.

Sales Manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

ESOPs is offered by an early age startup. What are the things I does be aware about? or ask the founders to clarify with me.

Human Resources

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

I am getting offered a 10L Esops for example, does that  simply mean i need to pay some amount  to get shares worth 10L of company at Actual Market Price?

I have got only RSUs until now so now idea how world of esops work and are they actual money?

Like If i’m at 40 CTC fixed and getting offer 48 fixed + 8L esops, am i getting 20% increment or 40% increment?

Explain Me like I’m 5 : What are ESOPs?

Let's assume youre stepping into your 5th grade. Parents tell you that they have 10 chocolates in the fridge and if you complete all the homework, pass exams with distinction and make them proud, they will give 10 chocolates and also extra.  
  
 So you work your ass off and kill your homework and exams. 
  
 If you have good parents, they will give you 2 chocolates per milestone [ESOPs buyback].  
  
 If you have good and rich parents, they will do as promised [company going IPO]. 
  
 Very common scenario - If you have bad parents, they will continue promising the existence of chocolates to motivate you but in reality there are no chocolates [company not doing buyback nor going IPO. ESOPs are just paper money with no value].

Where did you work and how much money did you make?

Asking as it looks like a lot of promise of ESOPs and wealth creation has failed employees in this bloodbath slow growth, layoffs, and job changes.

"ESOPs made me rich af"

I have had ESOPS in 2 companies 
#1 - company got acquired ..I got 45 Lacs IN ESOP ...thats 1.5X of my last annualized salary  ( so additional salary for 18 months) 
#2 - Company became unicorn ... I quit and company bought my ESOPs . Got 2 Cr
That is 3X of my annualized salary

Company 1 - I had joined at very early stage ; Company 2 - I joined at mid-stage

UX/UI Designer

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

How do you understand that Esops alloted in ctc are good enough?
Do companies have them fixed as percentage of ctc (ex. 30% of ctc) or how does it work?

What are the questions i can ask to get a better understanding of the Esops?
One would be current valuation, last buyback time, what else?

Is there any good resource to understand this?

How to evaluate ESOPs?

Considering applying there - anyone know what it’s like there? Both culture wise and company future wise…

How’s it like to workt at HealthifyMe?

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 position in an early stage startup (as part of the founding engineer team). They haven't given an offer yet.

Being early stage, the emphasis will most likely be on ESOPs. How do I evaluate this and set my expectations? (If I were to switch to a mature company, I believe the hikes usually are between 15-20%? How does this work for early stage startups?)

Salary expectation at early stage startup

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-drop-by-62-in-2023-as-funding-winter-bites-11987051.html

Esop Liquidity is becoming lottery??

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?

Are your ESOPs worth it?

Product Owner

Truths about ESOP 101 

After working in multiple fast growth startup’s and having been part of multiple buybacks as well as being in the startup ecosystem for a decade I want to put to bear my pov about creating wealth through ESOP. 

Like any other randomised event, ESOP also follows Pareto principle which means a very small number of people within the company ever make sizable wealth that they elevate to the top 0.1% of the country. 

The Pareto also applies with companies; significantly small minority of companies in India have employee friendly policies which enables an employee to create wealth. 

Most startup’s have dark patterns within their esop policy which either locks you in for insufferable durations or forces you to pay exorbitant taxes to gain the right to exercise your esops when you are leaving the company. 

Survivorship bias plays a huge role in enabling the narrative that esop is a great wealth generating tool leading to rude awakening for an employee after they join a company. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t make wealth, it just means don’t get carried away by narratives and take preventable errors in your career. 

Always talk to multiple people in startup’s and ask relevant questions to understand esop policies better. 

Like everything else optimising only for esop for wealth creation will mostly not result in it.

Unmasking ESOP wealth!

Consultant

How many of you had ESOP related promises by founders broken by them ? Could any of you appeal to their better senses and get any money or were you hung out to dry completely ??

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