[rcraft]

I thought the consensus on HN was that developers would much rather collect competitive salaries instead of options.

This comment from earlier this week comes to mind (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10132343):

"Most people will negotiate for more salary because they understand that options will just fuck them over. Money won't."

No surprise, I guess people want it both ways. Competitive salary AND lots of options.

[lambda]

I'm not sure there necessarily is a "consensus" on HN.

However, in general, people feel that you shouldn't take a very large salary cut just for a few options. Most startups are not going to have a significant exit. Some (like Zynga), will manage to find a way of screwing you out of options if they do have a substantial exit. Only a few will have options that have a very large upside.

So, if your options only add up to some very small percentage of the company, they shouldn't be given in lieu of a very large amount of salary. Sure, you're working on something exciting at a startup and there is some potential upside, so maybe take a 10% salary cut and a few options to compensate for it. But don't take a 50% salary cut (or a 100% cut, where you're only paid in options), and look at your options and say "it's worth it because these have a chance of being worth millions."

[dustingetz]

you've missed some nuance. Options at a startup-of-the-day are not valued. Options at companies that are clearly valuable are highly desirable.

[landryraccoon]

This never made sense to me. The bigger the company, the less valuable the options or stock are (because the value is known - you might as well take an equivalent amount of cash, because the upside is capped). On the other hand, at a tiny company where the options are worthless, you can get way more options more easily. You can actually negotiate for points of the total ownership of the company. Can you ask for 0.01% of Google if you interview there?

If you don't want risk, why would you work at a startup? If you aren't betting on a big exit, why wouldn't you just work at a company like Google or Facebook where your total (guaranteed, risk free) compensation would be far greater?

At my last startup I negotiated for a lower salary and as much equity as I could get, and I asked for more equity with every promotion. Those were the best decisions I ever made. I want to work at a startup because I want more risk, not less.

[elixerprog9]

Notch never offered them the choice.

[rcraft]

They clearly had a choice whether or not to accept the job.