[georgemcbay]

> I've tried to ask dozens of companies that wanted to hire me just for how many shares were outstanding and/or authorized.

Those questions are certainly worth asking but employees should also keep in mind that even if they do share that information your equity can still later be diluted away to worthlessness.

[mgfist]

There's other gotchas too. Ratchets, liquidation preferences, restructurings (recapitalizations) etc etc

There's many opportunities for VCs and founders to screw you over. And that's assuming things go well enough for that to be an option lol

[dilyevsky]

My 2c is these are almost always a consequence of the company not being a good business. Well, sometimes you get asshole founders/board members too that's not as common as the company just being an absolute money pit. So instead, I'd focus on asking about business fundamentals/strategy - if the company is money printer, everyone is likely going to do well financially

[mikert89]

nope, it happens in "good businesses". once real money is on the line, everything is a dog fight. no one talks publicly because of the reputational repurcussions

[dilyevsky]

not ime. you're also much more likely to get sued for this when real money is involved. cases that i know personally (and myself) either did ok and got pay out or everyone went to zero (below or close to strike price) but founders got secondaries (which screws VCs not the employees).

[mikert89]

seen many many cases first hand in NYC. Also, as an individual its very hard to sue a company with a huge amount of VC funding. you need a 100k to burn on it to even have a basic chance, and most cases are a legal gray area, most lawyers wont even take the case.

even finding a lawyer with the expertise to handle a case like this is not easy, its a very small world among those types of lawyers

[jashmatthews]

Make friends with lawyers.