I know the esop percentage for engineering 
 0.5-1% not sure about your domain  
  
 Check their funding amount  
  
 Don't go on a base salary which is lower than market avg

Software Engineer

- 0.3 to 0.7% equity  
 - Minimum 50% total ctc as cash in hand 
 - If the product has market fit, the problem will be good to tackle  
 - esops vesting 25% a year, but there wont be any guarantee of buyback until multiple rounds of funding 
 - if the team has good culture setting and vision, it will be fun and rewarding

Product Marketing Manager

Have you worked as a PM in logistics domain? Who is the CEO and his experience. 
 Has the company raised funds? 
 Also, if 2 months later you find out the problem statement has no validation, what would you do?

Product Manager

Hi everyone, this is my first post in Grapevine. I’ve received an offer to join a startup in the logistics field as a founding employee in the product team. Before I accept, I’d appreciate any advi...

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Hi everyone, this is my first post in Grapevine. I’ve received an offer to join a startup in the logistics field as a founding employee in the product team. Before I accept, I’d appreciate any advice on what to check regarding:

1. The team
2. The problem statement
3. Salary
4. ESOPs & equity (percentage, timeline, buyback, etc.)

Please let me know if there is anything else I need to check before. Basically looking for red flags in the last minute 😅
Thanks in advance!

Joining as a founding employee - checks

Product Designer

Joining as a founding employee - checks- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

As a software engineer considering joining a startup or company, what are the essential questions you recommend asking HR or the CEO to gain insights into the company culture, growth opportunities, and overall work environment? And whether to join there or not. 

Please share your experiences or any red flag you noticed, would be very helpful for our community.

Thanks in advance

Things to enquire before joining a startup/company

Hello Everyone, 

I am a 2022 MBA pass out from an Old IIM, and I have a total work experience of 2 years & 4 months(1.2 years post-MBA as an APM). I resigned from my position as an 'Associate Product Manager' in June 2023 because I found the role unfulfilling, I was totally not enjoying it, and I aspired to transition into roles related to the Strategy and Growth domain.  

(Link to my previous post on Grapevine regarding my Job Role Switch: https://share.gvine.app/EmMbJcfW4pCcEsZW9)

I'm currently having an offer to join the Strategy Team at a Series B-funded startup, with Y Combinator being one of the investors. However, this opportunity is a 6-month internship ( Designation: Strategy and Ops Intern), with the potential for conversion to a full-time role based on performance. I'm seeking advice on whether or not I should pursue this opportunity.

Additional Information: Over the past 3-4 months, I've actively applied to numerous Strategy and Growth roles. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any shortlists for these positions since they typically required a minimum of 2 years of experience in Strategy Consulting, which I currently lack, on the other side, I was only getting shortlists for APM/PM roles which I was accepting as I was not having any other option at that point in time. 

My Take: I consider this as a great opportunity to kickstart my career in the Strategy domain and I am confident about the conversion of a full-time opportunity. I am extremely interested in building my career in this strategy domain and this was the major reason to left my previous jobs. The organization also explicitly mentioned that they were also looking for a long-term association with me.

I would greatly appreciate your insights on this matter. Thank you so much for your time

Urgent: Need Advice on Job Offer Acceptance

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Urgent: Need Advice regarding Job Offer Acceptance.

How do you evaluate the risk and the potential of the offer from an early-stage (seed stage done) startup in India?

For example (hypothetical), a seasoned leader / founder is starting a new startup in fintech industry (e.g., next zerodha, etc). They raise 10 million USD at 30 million USD post-money valuation. 

I took fintech as example specifically to ensure it's not only engineers that will be needed from the beginning.

* Now, If I were to join as a founding team member (founding engineer for example), what kind of salary, ESOPs one should expect as minimum?

* If I were to join after 2-3 engineers are already hired (so not founding engg anymore), what is realistic expectation? 

* What are some questions I must ask to evaluate if the offer and equity I am being given is good or not.

(I know there's probably no way to generalise a "good/bad offer" as that likely depends also on very specific situation of the startup - like what problem is it trying to tackle, and what is the potential of it, etc. So feel free to share your experience as well if not advice)

Evaluating risk of joining a seed stage startup

Hello grapevines!
Need your help/opinion here.
I work for a big corp. ~6YOE. 48L.

The work culture here seems a bit off. Constant pressure to compete and snatch the work and prove oneself. Chaos is being glorified. Onsite team is unresponsive and hiding information. Asking for a KT is being judged upon(expectation is apparently to read through the code). Everyone is trying to earn brownie points by impressing the manage because no one seems to know what to work upon. Technical ability is being looked down upon in the name of domain knowledge.

I switched recently to upskill and grow, but seems like it was a wrong choice.

I’m looking for early stage startups to switch to. I know the current market situation is bad, but I’d take the risk as long as I’m getting to expose myself to good problem statements and less bullshit.

Looking to join early stage startups

Hi All, what can help me join an early stage startup and grow up to the top close to the founders within a year? I want to be in the middle of the action 

Has anyone here done it before?

How do people climb up/become more important in startups as employees?

If they have the right culture then showing excellency in your role, helping out others in the team, having opinions on decisions taken (not just for the sake of it) should help you get closer to the decision makers. 
  
 Remember that at an early stage startup, everything revolves around the product, and you will be rewarded for aligning with that. 
  
 Speaking from experience, you will be involved in "the action" in a team of 30 people either way

Business Development Manager

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

My background: 2024 grad, intern at an startup in Bengaluru, internship extended for 3 months recession is the reason told, no chance of fte.

Now, getting an offer from a startup. Team of 15-16 people. Pre seed stage startup. Will be building product from scratch. Lots of learning. 
Offering decent hike and since i m part of first team...getting small equity too.

Should I join this offer?

I m confused. But also thinking...it is risky but a lot to learn and growth potential is v high.

Tell what do u guys think??

Need help guys

Data engineer

What are the most important factors to consider before joining a startup?

Hi Grapeviners, 

I have an exp of exactly 2 years and i received an offer from a startup for analyst (level 1) at a cash component of ~ 20L (includes 10 % variable)  and ESOP worth 3 L. My current company had an all fixed comp at 15 LPA ( fully remote) but the new company is WFO at Bangalore. 

I am also giving interviews for two other companies parallelly but my LWD of my current company was yesterday. Should I go ahead with this offer? Overall it looks decent but it's definitely not a financial improvement for me as the hike will offset the living expenses and the 30% tax bracket. 

Need your take on this guys. Should I wait more? The current offer I cannot hold for more than a week before it expires.

Offer review

Business Analyst

We're hiring for roles across engineering, design and growth. 
As early users of Grapevine, it would be amazing to have you on this journey to build an awesome product, company and culture. 

https://grapevine-chat.notion.site/Become-a-founding-member-at-Grapevine-fe36cb0d33184f32802f9a18bc48cbca

Grapevine is hiring - come be a part of our founding team!

Founder

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

Hi everyone,

Recently I've been given an offer from a seed funded fintech startup. So I'm just wondering if it is fair enough. Please help

21L base + 1L ESOPs (vesting over 4 years)

YOE ~ 2 (Software engineer)

What should be my ideal ask?

Is this offer good enough?

How much does a core team member gets in equity in an early stage startup?

Hi Grapeviners, anyone here work at Joveo? I have been in talks for a PM role at Joveo. 

How is the culture and growth opportunities for the product people?

Any red flags that I should know of?

Company Review for joining

Hi everyone, I joined a startup back in May which started in May itself. I wrote the first line of code and it has been the backend work since then and have hired a few interns along the way. 

I took some pay cut to join this startup and i didn't receive any share/ESOPs as well in my offer letter. but whenever i talk to my friends who have worked or are working in these types of companies, ask me to ask for the ESOPs/equity from my founder. 

I did talk about  equity/ESOPs before accepting my offer letter but that time, they said, you will be issued ESOPs later on when we raise some funding. We will make some ESOPs plan when we raise funding. 

I know that our company has only raised friends and family round of amount near to 1cr. 

Now I need advice on.. should i bring up this conversation again with the company's founder ? 
And how much percentage of equity should I be asking..? 

 given that I am giving my 101% daily and leading the backend team.. although i have industry experience of only 3 years but have good academic achievements and has completed graduation in computer science in tier-1 college.

How to ask for ESOPs when you are a founding engineer

What questions would you ask to evaluate if you should join an early stage startup in this market?

The objective is to ensure job longevity, avoid getting laid off and experience a reasonable amount of growth.

Is there anything else that we can do apart from asking questions to the company folks?

Evaluating early stage startups in this market

Software Developer

I am an SE, with only 1 Yoe. 

I joined with 15 other freshers. Work is good, people are nice. But things are easy. Among all new hires and experienced folks, I am alr leading team of 4 to manage an entire micro-service which is core to business and brings in good bucks which I believe is a success for me.

It has become a normal thing that senior folks involve me in discussion for matters related to this service.

General feedback has been, that I am doing good and have good potential. However, I am not leaning much in terms of tech or anything exciting at all.

I am looking for a start-up where I can make contributions which have visible impact, work is challenging and I am pushed to boundary.


People at Grapevine, Is there a role where these expectations are met and I can make an impact?

Should I apply at Grapevine?

Hello All,

I interviewed with a startup recently and some of their policies around esops was something I encountered for the first time in my career, so wanted the expert advice of the community on next steps.

Surprise one: ESOPs will be allocated post probation period of 3 months and vesting starts from there and not the date of joining, I was surprised on this but upon discussion with the company POC I was given a reason of the legal fees involved, which sounds fair but the vesting schedule is it employee favourable?

Surprise two: They shared an offer letter with only the fixed component and said ESOPs will be evaluated post completion of probation period basis performance. Upon further discussing in this I was informed that this is a standard format their VC(sequoia, a16z and elevation) have approved. Is this true because I asked around few of my friends and all of them said esops are an integral part of the startup compensation and all of my and their offer letters historically had esops mentioned along with their value. 

Wrt to point 2 an I asking too much or some practice has changed in the industary which I’m unaware about. Also esop value post probation evaluation, is it employee friendly as the employee is in non negotiable position, isn’t it ?

Should esops component  be mentioned in offer letter?

Thoughts on the Grapevine app so far. 
Would you invest in Grapevine if you had the opportunity?
Do you think there is potential?

What do you feel about Grapevine? Is there potential to become the next big startup?

So, I am an analytics guy with almost 5.5 YoE under my belt. My latest transition was to Phonepe that I made this year (feeling shitty here already, given the kind of work creating almost no impact)
I saw a post on LinkedIn where the CEO of this startup recently raised some pre-seed funding (~1.5mn). Since I was following them for almost 6-7 months before this, I reached out to the founder on LinkedIn. 
We first had a virtual call where we got to know each other and after that discussion, he called me over to his place where we further talked about the idea, the scope and the future while also discussing what I could bring to the table. Post that, we met again, and this time with the other co-founder who deep-dived a slight bit into the tech stack that I had worked on.
It seems that all is going well, but the founder, in the first face to face meeting told me that for the time being (for almost the next 3-4 months), he'll be able to pay me a monthly amount which is less than half of my current in hand pay, post which it'll be reviewed and adjusted accordingly. How do I negotiate this now? Also, since the team size is super small (only 5 full time folks and one customer support part timer), how do I negotiate on what equity I take (looking for a benchmark number here)?

Joining as a founding employee - checks

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