[ajdecon]

For someone who sees 1 year as a long time, the one year vesting cliff may be a reason to discount the equity portion of the compensation package altogether, especially at a small startup where the chances of cashing out are low anyway. After a couple of months at a company, a new grad may think “hey, this isn’t THAT great’, and not stick out the next 9, 10, 11 months, because that seems to them, an insanely long time.

1) From the employer perspective in a startup: do you actually want an employee who's going to stay longer than a few months, based on any reason except the company and the work?

2) From the employee perspective: unless you're an extremely early employee, discounting the equity portion of a startup compensation package is probably the correct thing to do...