Are there any companies that share with the employees enough information to run this simulator?
My standard experience has been
-"This offer includes X,000 share/option units"
-"great, how much is that worth in dollars?"
-"well, we can't tell you, but there are Y00,000 shares in total, and the last investor paid $Z million for W% of the company".
"OK, that's very useful. If I assume my shares are as good as the investor's shares, I can estimate my shares' market value. Did the investor get anything else of economic value for his investment? A liquidation preference? Right to invest in future rounds? A board seat? Sweetheart deals with his favourite companies? "
- "Let me check that with Finance"... ... ... "I'm sorry but I can't tell you that"
- "OK, I understand that's confidential. Can I at least get the same deal as him? I'll trust you to give me my extra benefits when they accrue, and I waive the board seat and the backhand deals"
- "Absolutely not."
- "Well then, it's very hard for me to put a value on these shares/ options. Even though I'm willing to take some level of risk in my compensation, and value these close to market value, you won't give me enough information to let me value them at anything other than $0"
- "I've checked with $BIGWIG and actually we can make an exception in this case: we can offer you (X + 1),000 shares/ options. How does that sound? "
My standard experience has been
-"This offer includes X,000 share/option units"
-"great, how much is that worth in dollars?"
-"well, we can't tell you, but there are Y00,000 shares in total, and the last investor paid $Z million for W% of the company".
"OK, that's very useful. If I assume my shares are as good as the investor's shares, I can estimate my shares' market value. Did the investor get anything else of economic value for his investment? A liquidation preference? Right to invest in future rounds? A board seat? Sweetheart deals with his favourite companies? "
- "Let me check that with Finance"... ... ... "I'm sorry but I can't tell you that"
- "OK, I understand that's confidential. Can I at least get the same deal as him? I'll trust you to give me my extra benefits when they accrue, and I waive the board seat and the backhand deals"
- "Absolutely not."
- "Well then, it's very hard for me to put a value on these shares/ options. Even though I'm willing to take some level of risk in my compensation, and value these close to market value, you won't give me enough information to let me value them at anything other than $0"
- "I've checked with $BIGWIG and actually we can make an exception in this case: we can offer you (X + 1),000 shares/ options. How does that sound? "
- "..."