i'm eager to be able to get outside again, but working remote has been pretty good and being excited about work is a huge bonus

pretty sure my mental health would've declined greatly had I not jumped into a startup

i'm looking at applying at a series A startup, not sure if it's a horrible idea or not (financially)

have you worked at one before?

nope

Series A is probably a good time to get your feet wet, then

oh, i'd worked at a startup before, not a series A one

i was employee ~100 at Atlassian

ah cool

(before people got stock, heh)

i guess i just have to think of the equity as a big risk

yeah, you kind of have to assume equity == 0, and it's a nice surprise if it ever ends up not being 0

I actually think the 409(a) FMV for common shares ends up being a pretty good idea of what the current expected value (i.e. risk adjusted expected payout) of your shares is

that's true, since you're coming in later

so when you first join, equity == zero because the share price is the same as the strike price, as the company goes through more rounds the common FMV gets closer and closer to the preferred share value, and you can use the delta as your expected value

man too many new chat things today.. this server and freenode is splitting (again)

what would be the typical cost to buy the options if i stuck around only for a couple years?

that depends on your grant

way too many variables to answer that

at series A it should be roughly ownership percentage * valuation * .2 or so

aha so around 20% of the grant

if you stick around two years you can cut your grant ownership in half

well if they tell you the strike price then the cost to buy them is literally just strike price * number of shares being purchased

right

the strike price is set at the time of the grant, right?

yep, as the FMV changes though, you can get hit up for taxes based on the difference between what the shares are worth when you exercise them vs the amount you paid for them

i highly recommend using an accountant if you do startups instead of turbo tax 😆

hm, i think i'd just have to plan on exercising the options

uh yeah california and australia complicate my taxes too :/

yeah, i bet you already have an international one, right?