[p1esk]

It does not make any sense to suffer through 5+ years of unsatisfying job with (relatively) low pay, just to have a very small (<5%) chance to make enough money to retire. This chance is actually much smaller if you own less than 5% of the company (i.e. not a founder or C-level).

Source: worked for 7 startups in the last 20 years.

[Sohcahtoa82]

My base salary is actually above market by a decent margin.

Total compensation is a little lower than market if you assume the options are worthless. But if we get to a $5B valuation, the value of my options would put me to a significantly over-market compensation, though not enough to retire. If we reached $30B, then that would give me ~$6M assuming no dilution.

[p1esk]

What is the current valuation, or how much money have you raised, and how many rounds?

[Sohcahtoa82]

Our current valuation is not public. I can't disclose it.

But we've had 4 rounds of funding totaling $131M.

[p1esk]

One of the startups I used to work for in the past had 3 rounds, ~180M total, shut down 2 months ago. Investors lost almost all of their money, founders got nothing. I lost 20k I paid for my vested shares.

[Sohcahtoa82]

I'm not buying my shares until we've gotten enough momentum that an IPO or buyout looks inevitable.