[bradlys]

It’s wild that this isn’t the top response.

I get a ton of emails from random startups in stealth mode, early funding, whatever.

You know where they all go? Spam folder. As far as I’m concerned, they pay the equivalent of dog shit and are mostly full of extremely entitled founders. They rarely offer equity that’s even remotely worth the risk. I’m way better off joining a company at Series B/C. I can often get a very similar amount of stock that even seed or series A folks have with having avoided a huge amount of risk. Tbh - I find joining pre-IPO probably has close to the best reward+risk for non-public entities.

There’s just no benefit to joining early startups as a non-founder. Maybe when founders start offering serious percentages of stock that isn’t going to be diluted into nothing - I’ll be more inclined. Until then - no way!

[gen220]

It depends a lot on the company. Pre-funding/pre-pmf is hard to judge. But there are plenty of companies with arguable PMF at the seed stage, for whom raising an A vs going alone is an actual choice.

If you're filtering for B/C, you're filtering for companies that need investor money post-supposed-PMF (A is generally considered the anointing of PMF).

That behavior was fine pre-2021, but it's a bit more suspect in 2022. Joining the median pre-IPO tech company within the last year or two would have left your initial option grant completely in the red, today.

In short, there's a continuum between "stealth mode" and Series B that's more lucrative than you're giving credit for, provided one chooses them wisely. The problem is it's hard to choose. There aren't good incentives for educating people on how to choose well.

[bradlys]

The issue with ones that are "profitable" at seed or Series A and don't pursue more funding is that I don't think they ever go public. The founders will find a way to get their payday but as an employee - you're SOL.