[p1esk]

I was employee #1 at a SaaS startup 15 years ago. I got 0.5%, which translated into 175k after tax 8 years later (500m exit). That was the only successful exit out of 8 startups I have worked at in the last 20 years.

[cddotdotslash]

Examples like these highlight just how incredibly poor the return on investment for working at startups is. Very few will ever reach a $500m exit. Generously assuming a 50% tax rate, $175k before tax, spread over 8 years is ~$44k/yr. As a founding engineer, you could likely find a similar job at FAANG/FAANG-adjacent companies paying 2-3x that in (liquid) stock per year.

Lifestyle arguments aside, startups seem like a _really_ bad deal.

[bibabaloo]

So being generous and assuming you paid 50% tax, that means you got 0.07% of the company, so about 10x dilution. Is that normal?

[satvikpendem]

For a founding engineer role, yes that is standard.