sam

Sales Ops

Equity paying out!

A lot of us here in startup sales get some form of equity when they joined - while it can mostly be considered as lottery tickets depending on how the company does, I'm curious what kind of luck we've all hit here!

How much have you made from your company equity grants?

Attached poll

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💰 Compensation

💸 Investing

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15 comments

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caS2ie

Good Citizen

All things people

Got lucky joining Uber in 2014, equity 150x'ed and vested all 4 years + equity refreshers and bonuses. From the experience, I just chase startups and try to stay for min 2 years (if doing well). We're in sales, so it should be easier to ask questions and spot which ones could potentially do well.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

how much do you think the average payout is? I've never gone the start up route but am thinking about it

caS2ie

Good Citizen

All things people

That's a really open-ended question and takes a few follow up questions: when did you join the company? How much ownership did they offer? How well did they do? How much fundraising did they go through? How much dilution did they experience?

Every startup is a gamble, the earlier you join, the riskier it is, which is why you want to find an opportunity with a company that has or on the cusp of PMF. Generally, startups will hire salespeople when they need repeatable sales process because there is PMF.

If you do land a whale, the risk is worth the reward.

Happy to answer more questions, I've joined 3 companies at varying fundraising stages, with 3 exits (2 IPO + 1 SPAC), and love talking about equity.

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

What's the largest equity payout you've received? If you don't mind my asking.

caS2ie

Good Citizen

All things people

$1.6M total on today's market, took 4 years to vest the initial grant and received some refreshers as well.

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

Wow! I love your approach of focusing on startups, no matter where you work you'll make a salary and commish (usually) so getting something for your time investment through equity is an awesome strategy!

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

I got very lucky and joined pre-ipo, and the company took off after that.

Spade

Arsonist

Global Business Development Manager

How long did it take?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Left a company that was in full life support mode, didn't buy my options. They were purchased for a negligent multiple about 3 weeks after my option-exercise window closed. Lost $85k.

sam

Politicker

Sales Ops

ouch.

sam

Politicker

Sales Ops

what was your total option exercise price - pretty low or something sizable like 5k-10k?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

That's the laughable part of equity--the average person cannot afford to buy their options in most cases. Would have been $5k to buy the options, which I was in a position to do but I saw the company tanking within months.

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Have yet to make any money from this, but also pretty new so I'm hopeful

Spade

Arsonist

Global Business Development Manager

Just joined one and got options, hoping and patiently praying to exit and cash in 💰

CJE

Politicker

Account Executive

Still vesting baby