Best of Blogs: How to Value and Negotiate Startup Stock Options
NOTE: Updated February 23, 2016.
Attorney Mary Russell counsels individuals on startup equity, including:
You are welcome to contact her at (650) 326-3412 or at info@stockoptioncounsel.com.
We have suggested the following free resources to Stock Option Counsel clients to help them master this area and gain confidence in negotiating their stock options and other employee stock.
1. Leo Polovet's' Analyzing AngelList Job Postings, Part 1: Basic Stats & Part 2: Salary and Equity Benchmarks
2. Venture Hacks' I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal?
3. Andy Payne's Startup Equity for Employees
4. Mary Russell's Startup Equity Standards: A Guide for Employees
5. Wealthfront's Startup Salary and Equity Compensation Calculator (This is very general but people find it helpful.) And Wealthfront's The Right Way to Grant Equity to Your Employees.
6. Patrick McKenzie of Kalzumeus Software's Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued
7. Piaw Na's Negotiating Compensation, from An Engineer's Guide to Silicon Valley Startups
8. mystockoptions.com's How does a private company decide on the size of a stock grant? (You may have to create a login)
9. Michelle Wetzler's How I Negotiated My Startup Compensation
10. Mary Russell's Video Negotiate the Right Startup Stock Option Offer, based on Mary Russell and Boris Epstein's Bull's Eye: Negotiate the Right Job Offer
11. Mary Russell's Joining An Early Stage Startup? Negotiate Your Salary and Equity with Stock Option Counsel Tips
12. Robby Grossman's Negotiating Your Startup Job Offer
13. John Greathouse's What The Heck Are My Startup Stock Options Worth?! Seven Questions You Should Ask Before Joining A Startup
14. David Weekly's An Introduction to Stock & Options for the Tech Entrepreneur or Startup Employee
Attorney Mary Russell counsels individuals on startup equity, including:
You are welcome to contact her at (650) 326-3412 or at info@stockoptioncounsel.com.
Startup Stock: Particles and Waves. Casinos and Creativity.
Photo: Bobby Mikul
Attorney Mary Russell counsels individuals on startup equity, including:
You are welcome to contact her at (650) 326-3412 or at info@stockoptioncounsel.com.
What is a corporation? Finance pros and justice types present two very different answers to that question.
On the finance side, a corporation is a casino-style financial arrangement between those who own stock. It divides up the rights to a financial return on capital. It emphasizes balance sheets and stock prices and risk and return to support the view that each corporation is a table in a casino that investors approach to place their investment bets and seek a financial return.
On the human advocacy side, a corporation is a living body made up of creative individuals. The liveliness of the group – defined to include investors, managers, employees, and, perhaps, the community or the earth – is the purpose of the corporation. They make comparisons to slavery, define externalities and articulate their values to support their view that a corporation is a living body that could not be owned.
Like a ray of light, which is at once a wave and a group of particles, the corporation is both a casino game for investors and a living, creative body. Evidence will always appear on both sides of this truth.
In choosing a career path and negotiating compensation, we use both perspectives. We find a place that has some life to it, to which our creative contribution can add life. But we tune into the casino view as well and seek compensation for the risk we take in joining the enterprise. This requires the eye of an investor who would look at the risks of the bet and the size of the possible return from every angle with the help of professionals in law, finance, technology, etc.
It would be distasteful to take this view of our work every day, but it must be done at some time. And it is best done with Stock Option Counsel. This blog will introduce the Stock Option Counsel perspective on the risk / investment that employees take / make in accepting stock options or other equity as compensation. It should be helpful to those evaluating their compensation and also reveal the points in time in which Stock Option Counsel can add value in this process.
Attorney Mary Russell counsels individuals on startup equity, including:
You are welcome to contact her at (650) 326-3412 or at info@stockoptioncounsel.com.