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by gaius 5761 days ago
Why do they only want to give you a share when they're revenue-neutral?

A limited company, their liability is extremely limited, I'm assuming it's not a partnership. There's no reason for them not to give you equity right now.

1 comments

From what they said was that to give out shares at this point would require additional lawyer fees. They are already formed as an S corp (I believe), so I'm not sure how much lawyer fees would be required, but nevertheless, I was young and naive when I first started (this is my first startup) and probably should have pushed a bit harder.
The truth is that they might actually believe that they'll give you a "big slice of the pie" once the money starts rolling in but in reality what will happen is that they'll a) get greedy and b) be able to afford someone(+) to replace you if you complain too much.

It's just aaahhh business and you're out of a job with no pie.

A startup whose founders can go on holiday for a week can afford lawyer's fees.
Vacations needn't be expensive. Sure, there's a loss of one week's income generation, but it's possible to have a fantastic week away on what it would cost to talk to a lawyer for half an hour. Some examples: camping and fishing, eating what you catch to save on food; rock climbing; backpacking; etc.
yeah, but the opportunity cost is pretty high.
"give out shares at this point would require additional lawyer fees" -> translate: they don't want to give you shares.