Stock Options Series A

Question

Hey everyone,I recently received an offer to join an AI start-up in New York that recently raised Series A somewhere around $30million-$40million (they wouldn't share exact figures because things are not finalized).The total company size is below 10 with only 4 people working on the tech/product directly. I am going to be the 5th software eng on the team. They offered me a competitive base similar to FAANG for my level and equity of roughly somewhere between 0.1%-0.2%. I can't calculate exactly since they won't share their total number of stocks after Series A dilution but I got a sense that the Pre-Series A options make 0.2%!My experience is ~2 years and I've directly worked on the product they are building at another company for ~1 year. My question to you guys is, are the stock options (20,000 options / 0.1-0.2%) offered competitively? I expected at least 1% to join so early. Thanks!

eightysixer · Accepted Answer

That's weak on the equity side for sure, maybe 1) a function of the fact that you are still fairly early career, 2) they're making up for it with a high base salary.

I think you are asking the right questions, and I'd be a little concerned if they're not going to be transparent about numbers.

In your shoes, I would offer to sign an NDA and see if that resolves any reticence to dive into numbers. Or you can ask them to discuss their equity compensation strategy and why they arrived at the numbers they did for you. For a startup at this stage, there should be lots of transparency.

Otherwise, you might need to consider that your primary economic opportunity here is mostly gonna be in the base salary, and see how you feel about the job then. Good luck!

Stock Options Series A

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