Salesrocketship

SVP Sales

Equity / Partner Conversation

Hey war room!

As a seasoned IC who has successfully helped take a company from $1.8m to $17m over the past 8 years, bringing in nearly 70% of the company's revenue singlehandedly in 2024, I am ready to talk equity with the owners.

Has anyone done this successfully? I have put my heart and soul into this company and feel this is something I deserve to ask.

💰 Compensation

📉 Equity

✍️ Sales advice

18 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

What is the equity worth? Are they public, plan to go public, or plan to sell? Equity without either a) a plan to exercise it or b) a mechanism to receive bonuses and dividends, is a cool flex but totally worthless in value.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Bingo

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

The 'why' is key here. And the understanding the likelihood of that actually happening.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Bad MFer

8 years and you don't have any equity?!?

Salesrocketship

Contributor

SVP Sales

Haha, believe me! It wasn't really a thought in my mind at the beginning, but as I've increasingly and exponentially proved my value, and they are asking me to provide more to the company (including helping recruit more salespeople because of my large network), I think it's my time to stand firm and ask.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Bad MFer

How many other employees?
Where has the investment money come from?

MRK47

Tycoon

VP of International Sales

Really depends on the owners exit strategy as to what value equity really has vs consistent comp plan increases (sometimes the provision of equity is in lieu of decent increases to a comp plan).

Naturally equity only becomes valuable with a change event….but some plans allow for vested equity to be purchased back by the company if you were to exit before a change event occurs so could have some value (but as a private company with no previous outside investment, it’s hard to assign a value)….and just from personal experience, it can be a double edged sword…..if you have a vesting anniversary timeline, it can put a target on your back.

Given it sounds as though you’re highly valuable with high performance but it's a more traditional bootstrapped business with 2 founders who may be resistant to just give away equity, you could push for performance based equity based on individual / company milestones (minimizes their risk) rather than standard RSUs/RSAs etc.

Salesrocketship

Contributor

SVP Sales

Yeah I think this is the way to go. Right now they are talking about some sort of Partner program where every year they'd set aside a chunk of money (basically a bonus) into an account and it would vest a lot quicker than retirement funds, so I could pull some from it in a couple years instead of decades. I don't hate this idea, just was curious from others' perspectives if the longer game equity play if they were to sell would be more lucrative. Trying to plan for my retirement strategy early, and I love this company! (The owners and I also happen to be only 3 years in age apart so I can imagine they'll want out at a similar time to me down the road).

Salesrocketship

Contributor

SVP Sales

When I started, I think 8 employees. We're at about 30 now. No outside investors, just the 2 owners. We've bootstrapped this thing all outbound cold call sales and a lot of it has been me personally.

Salesrocketship

Contributor

SVP Sales

Also this is not a software company. But probably don't want to provide more details publicly (although this is "anonymous").

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

What's the point of equity?
They going to sell?
Pay you dividends?

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Bad MFer

Solid point. Equity only matters if there is a sale of the company or IPO. If those events aren’t on the horizon you’re just collecting Monopoly money.

A company I came across a few months ago was very similar to what you are scribing in terms of size, revenue, ownership. They instead had in place a profit sharing program. Your percentage increased over the course of 3 years, but in that case would translate to $20k-30k in the first year.

Salesrocketship

Contributor

SVP Sales

This is exactly what they are looking at - tbd on when they'll implement but it sounds like from opinions above this might be an ok route vs clamoring for equity...

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Bad MFer

I would take bonus/profit sharing all day over equity. It’s real money that you’ll have access to much faster if you hit your metrics.

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

Gotta be honest I think you’re going to have a tough time convincing them to part with any meaningful chunk of equity at this point. Revenue has 10x and they own 100% what’s the incentive for them? Especially if you’ve been paid well from a commission standpoint.

Don’t take this the wrong way, just a counter point to consider. If you go to them hat in hand they may tell you to fuck off completely. Dig deep into WHY would they give you a piece.

Also, if they do, there is going to be tax planning you will need to do ASAP

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

All the advice I can give comes from Suits

Justatitle

Tycoon

Account Executive

Are the owners ready to talk equity?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

👀🍿