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by wyvern 6270 days ago
<<Consider these things:

How much did the original founders spend both in time and in money before you came along.

* How much have /you/ spent in relation to that?

* How affected was the outcome of the business by your presence, did you accelerate the growth, did you take it the extra step, can they survive without you etc.>>

I've done this math, valuing time at the market rate. I come out as about a 10% contributor, but they obviously can't give me 10%, since there need to be points for the option pool.

I was offered 2%, which seemed really low, but I was told that this was because the CEO wanted to conserve points for future hiring. I was also told the low number was because I wasn't relevant to getting the first round of funding (which appeared to be imminent). However, funding came later, at a time when I am relevant, and with 7 months on the line, I don't think this is enough, unless a large number of programmers much better than I am are hired (and they mentor me).

1 comments

I come out as about a 10% contributor, but they obviously can't give me 10%, since there need to be points for the option pool...I was offered 2%, which seemed really low, but I was told that this was because the CEO wanted to conserve points for future hiring.

That's silly. There's no such thing as persevering points. If you create an option pool later on, everyone dilutes together.

I didn't know this. This seems like a much fairer arrangement than accepting a low number on the premise that other people might needs points. I have a year's protection against employee-grant dilutions (none against investor dilution, obviously) but I'd give that up for a higher share.

However, I don't think I can suggest the CEO change how he runs his company.