Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bayareaguy 6271 days ago
These things are never simple but a fair distribution should take into account the risk each person took and the value of their contribution. For example if they worked twice as long as you and they took twice the risk you did then it would be difficult for you to justify more than a 1/9 stake.

If they were stuck before you got there and you played an important part in getting a 3-person company to some measure of profitability then you probably deserve closer to a double-digit percentage.

A board seat is probably out of the question at this point but I'd recommend you negotiate for the same class of shares and vesting/acceleration options that your co-founders get.

1 comments

For example if they worked twice as long as you and they took twice the risk you did then it would be difficult for you to justify more than a 1/9 stake.

That seems about right. I figure I'm worth about 9-10% of the work up to now, considering time spent and what we'd command on the market. That number needs to be docked according to the pool reserved for future employees, and raised if we go longer without salaries. There are enough variables that I'm not aware of, so I don't know what fair is although I have a general sense of the range.

A board seat is probably out of the question at this point but I'd recommend you negotiate for the same class of shares and vesting/acceleration options that your co-founders get.

Why is a board seat out of the question? Should I want one? I'm really naive about this question, and don't even know if I necessarily want one. What are the benefits and drawbacks?