How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video] | Hacker News
This is the true risk of startups, and, if you're looking to maximize your earnings, it's best to either join a big tech company or start your own startup owning most of the equity, perhaps as a side hustle while you grow it enough to be profitable. But getting "founding engineer" level equity on the order of 0.5% (before dilution!) seems to basically be a scam, where you're working 2x the amount for lower salaries than the market, all while having some nebulous carrot dangling in front of you for a reward that may never come, most likely, or even if it does, the value is so small as to not make up even on a per-hour basis the amount you spent working at the startup. 0.5% at an early stage with below market compensation, no refreshers with future rounds, negligible comp increase with future rounds, and below-market salary is indeed a scam. A lot of startups are happy to operate this way. On the other hand, getting 0.5% equity in addition to market rate salary (or adjusted to market rat
This is the true risk of startups, and, if you're looking to maximize your earnings, it's best to either join a big tech company or start your own startup owning most of the equity, perhaps as a side hustle while you grow it enough to be profitable. But getting "founding engineer" level equity on the order of 0.5% (before dilution!) seems to basically be a scam, where you're working 2x the amount for lower salaries than the market, all while having some nebulous carrot dangling in front of you for a reward that may never come, most likely, or even if it does, the value is so small as to not ma
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