Depends on two things: 
 1. Your financial position 
 2. Startup's chance of success 
  
 If you have kids and have bills to pay, go for liquidity - join the public company. 
  
 If the Series B company has a high chance of reaching Series D or E AND you have a chance of growing in the org, then go for Series B. You can gauge chances of success by looking at the Startup's market and the Founder's background.

Software Engineer

You asked for RSUs or ESOPs but described a lot more points to make decision on. I’ll go with the Series B startup given ur points.

Consider this scenario:  A well established publicly trading company is giving you $45000 (120 units) worth of RSUs, with vesting schedule of 4 years. The work culture seems stressful (asked from e...

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Consider this scenario:

A well established publicly trading company is giving you $45000 (120 units) worth of RSUs, with vesting schedule of 4 years. The work culture seems stressful (asked from ex employees) and they have a 4 day work from office where they track your badge attendence. 

And a Series B startup is giving you $45000 (9000 units) worth of ESOPs with vesting schedule of 4 years. It has scope to go for Series C and D fundings and even IPO in 4-5 years. The company is flexible in remote/office setting and has some perks like: once a quarter a selected Monday will be holiday, yearly offsite to exotic places.

Which one would you prefer RSUs or ESOPs? and why? Kindly explain why your preferences.

ESOPs or RSUs? Which would you choose?

Analyst

ESOPs or RSUs? Which would you choose?- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Hi Folks,

Can you help me with the difference between RSU and ESOPS ?

I'll share my understanding, requesting the community to help as well.


Assumption for comparison:

₹/$ 100,000 worth of RSU vs ESOPS vested of 4 years equal distribution from 1st Jan 2024.

RSU:
Since these are given for listed orgs,
₹/$ 25,000 worth of stocks are vested every year starting 1st Jan 2025 , 1st Jan 2026,1st Jan 2027 ,1st Jan 2028.


ESOPS:
What happens on 1st Jan 2025 ?
Does the employee need to buy stock options worth ₹/$ 25,000 from his own pocket.
( I know they are given based on current valuation divided by number of shares plus some discount and FMV Stuff)


Main point here is , incase of ESOPS whatever is stated at a part of compensation, employee need to shell out of his pocket?

Is there anything I'm missing?

RSU v/s ESOPS

Software Developer

What’s the advantage of RSUs over ESOPs? Is it RSU that’s more lucrative as I always had ESOPs that didn’t materialise into anything :-(.

ESOPs vs RSUs

Program Manager

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

Please share the knowledge you've about these two!

Product Owner

What are the ways to reduce the stock price of a private company before it goes for IPO?

Example:

Let's say the stock price of a private company is Rs 8000 with a face value of Rs 10. So one way here is to split the stock in a 1:10 ratio making the stock price Rs 800 which might make it easier for growth of the company

Another way I'm aware is to issue bonus shares to the employees which would reduce the stock price

What other ways are there?

I'm looking for answers where there are benefits to employees and where there aren't

Private company valuations

Growth Manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

What is a reasonable ask while negotiating with startups?

Should I ask for a match or hike of X% over my TC/annum (52lk Base + 8lk Bonus + Rs30lk RSUs), or should I negotiate only over the Cash (Base + Bonus) component?

A startup I’m negotiating with is not considering the RSUs I have and is offering a 8% hike only on the cash component, and is throwing in ESOPs (paper money) instead.

What do I do?

Need help negotiating with a startup

Product Manager

Hi, I got an offer from a Series B startup and they are giving me 3000 shares of ESOPs vested over 4 years. Right now the value of each shares are worth $5 and has a potential to grow after new funding rounds this year. I feel 3000 shares is less and want to negotiate for more. 

In your experience can anyone tell me how much ESOPs (shares) have you received from new startups? And was it benefecial in the long run?

Any input is appreciated.

How much ESOPs should I ask from a Series B startup?

Started working in 2017 (Graduation: Tier 2 College)  in hand salary: 28K per Month. Worked for 2.5yrs, had big dreams, didn’t knew what to do, how do I 10x my salary, saw my manager 40yrs old earning 25LPA in the same company. Realised I don’t want to do this for the next 20yrs and the reach at 25LPA. Started preparing for UPSC (wanted to make it big) realised within 6 months, this is not my cup of tea, appeared for MBA entrance, cleared the exam joined Tier 1 MBA, post MBA: 25LPA + XX Esops in next two years at 1.2Cr CTC inc ESOPs. 

Before 2030 plan to achieve FIRE with 8Cr networth. By 2040 make it 100Cr and retire. Chill at beach with beer in hand and two other friends. 

What’s your story, do share those goldmine inspirational stories!!

Story of Middle Class guy from 3.5LPA CTC to 1.2Cr CTC (46Base + 72Esops) in 4 yrs

Are you considering 72L esops of razorpay as your own networth? 🤔🤔

Senior Product Manager

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?

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

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

Hi folks, 

I'm Kashish, the CEO of EquityList and Founder of Cloud Capital which I run as a solo GP.
A little bit about what we do: 

EquityList is a full-stack equity management platform by AngelList India. Companies across India, US and Singapore use EquityList to manage their cap table, stock options (ESOP/SAR), shareholders, and related compliances. Managing equity for 10k+ stakeholders, 250+ companies and ~$1B in stock options.

Cloud Capital has deployed $8M+ in 55+ startups such as Airmeet, Rupifi, Orange Health, DevRev, ZET (OneCode) and others. I've also angel invested in startups such as OSlash, Atlys, Chronicle, Even Healthcare and others.

Excited to do this AMA, and look forward to answering any of your questions about ESOPs, cap table management, investing, entrepreneurship, and more!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashisharma

Live AMA: Hey everyone, I'm Kashish, CEO of EquityList. Ask me anything!

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

Hello all! 
I am working as HR Head in a growth stage startup in Bangalore. So many people here talk about compensation, culture, growth etc. Happy to answer questions related to HR/Culture/Startups.

People & Culture Manager

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Any news on who is getting it, what's like an average payout for eligible employees? As per the news article, approx 19000 employees are getting it. Anyone has insider info?

Flipkart ESOP payout worth $700M

Founder

Hi, I have an ESOPs related question. Appreciate any inputs. 

Consider a Series B startup providing an employee with 5000 shares. After 2 years, 2000 shares are vested and exercised by the employee. The stocks were never liquidated because the company didn't conduct buyback nor went IPO. 

Now, assume the company lays off that employee after 2 years,

- Can he still hold the vested and exercised 2000 shares? 
- If yes, then can he sell those stocks during future buyback even if he isn't an employee?
- Will the company provide accelerated vesting for the remaining 3000 shares during layoff? (not mentioned on offer letter)

Question on ESOPs

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

Hi, I am an incoming Fresher @ SF. I wanted to know how do ESOPs work. Like in the overall CTC they include them (about 20L worth) but then they say it's vested over four years. Wouldn't the CTC then actually be a quarter of what they include? Like only 5L?

Also after the vesting period, do the companies stop giving ESOPs? Then does our CTC basically become Base salary + Bonuses?

ESOPs! How do they work?

I joined my present company a year back, my peer has been here for 5 years and holds RSU's amounting to 1.5 crores (Share value got 4x in 5 years).

ESOPs or RSUs? Which would you choose?

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