corporategal_gone_startup

Senior Account Executive

What amount of shares to ask for at Series B?

received an offer for Mid Market AE role at a Series B company. new to startups and want to ensure I understand appropriate range for stock options / number of shares.

what range makes sense here? 6,000 shares? 10,000?

💰 Compensation

17 comments

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SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Thats seems a pretty on par, or better than most vesting cliff, depending on strike price - candidly, id focus more on take home then shares as they usually end up worthless.

corporategal_gone_startup

Contributor

Senior Account Executive

agree - it appears I've stretched them as far as possible on the base + OTE. I plan to push on the ramp period (2 months full pay) to try to support this area of the offer..

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Hey!!
Welcome to the War Room, great first post.

This is Gasty - WR Community Manager. Just wanted to highlight a few points before I talk about the post.

WR is a Sales Community Platform with some of the best Sales people and their advice is pure gold. This is an anonymous platform but I see you’ve got that part sorted. Kudos!

We consistently post Leaderboard’s, Fun Friday activity, who’s hiring and more.

This isn’t LinkedIn, you can go as detailed as you want. Just focus on providing value.

Lastly, have you checked out the commission store yet? If not, I highly recommend. Earning those points is also super easy. Upvotes get you points. We got some amazing goodies that you can bag. Just be more active, post more, engage more.

Now to talk about your post;

I think the range that you’ve given is decent. However, they may or may not come in as beneficial. Companies need to perform remarkably for those shares to mean something to you.

If you’re happy with the OTE, then be happy with the overall offer. Congratulations though.

Welcome once again!! :)

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Agreedo!

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Maybe I'm missing something, but how can that question be answered without understanding the total number of shares they're issuing and the price!?

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

I think they’re talking about ESOPS.
Price of shares is not that impactful right now, since it’s based on internal valuations. It’s not liquid until the company is listed or sold. So getting 10,000 shares seems okay at whichever price. No?

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

I wouldn’t settle for anything under 10,231

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Well that depends on how many outstanding shares there are.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

People responding with such confidence despite lack of basic information.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

The basics of startup finance is lost on nearly all employees because founders don't want to take the time to explain why you're likely holding insignificant equity.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

How many shares are outstanding?
If this is your first start up I'd spend a lot more time digging into the health of the business than worrying about how many shares you'll get.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

thinking about this again.... it really doesn't matter because 99% of equity shares are never even worth the paper they'd be printed on. i could wipe myself for a month with all the worthless equity shares I have received over the years.

saaskicker

Tycoon

Enterprise AE

1% of out standing shares would be above average for an AE in my experience. How many employees?

TheSDR

Fire Starter

SDR Leader

In this market, I’d focus more on your OTE or perks—equity doesn’t mean much unless you’re joining a company that’s seriously growing and likely to IPO or get bought by a PE firm. Equity’s basically a lottery ticket—it didn’t pan out like I’d hoped, so salary is definitely the safer bet.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Get money up front. Nothing is guaranteed 🤷‍♀️

BlackVNeck

Good Citizen

Mid Market Account Executive

The quantity of wacky bucks they give you is meaningless without the rest of the info