> If you get paid a slightly below market rate and get some worthless equity, what's the big deal?
If you really do, agree that it's ok and a fun ride.
But where are you going to find a startup that pays market rate? Never seen one.
Base salary can be very close! But at an established company you are also making money on RSUs, often more than your salary. And usually have a bonus, which can be quite significant.
So your base salary might be 250K in an established company and 200K at the startup. Not a huge difference. But total comp at the established company is more like 500K-600K vs. at the startup just 200K. Huge difference.
> But where are you going to find a startup that pays market rate? Never seen one.
I guess you're looking in the wrong places. Over the past 13 years, I've worked for five startups (both full-time and contract) that paid market rate (two paid a fair bit above, even). In my professional and social circles, this has been pretty common. Certainly some have worked below market rate for some companies, but that seems to be the exception, not the rule.
> But at an established company you are also making money on RSUs, often more than your salary
That's definitely not been my experience. At established companies, the RSUs are usually a nice quarterly bonus, in the wide range of 10-50% of base (annualized). Certainly there are some where the RSUs can end up being several multiples of base (I've worked at one like that, though my equity comp level was not common, and was mainly a consequence of my long tenure there from when they were small), but I don't think it's that common. A lot of people seem to assert that you can easily get that at a FAANG, but that doesn't seem to be true. Some people can, but not the median employee.
Also consider that a lot of the stories of high equity comp come from people talking about the FAANGs. Those companies were founded 20-25+ years ago, and matured into established companies 10-15+ years ago; the "rules" have changed quite a bit since then.
It's possible! I live in the silicon valley bubble.
I've worked for 5 startups (and had offers from about ~5 more to know what they would've paid). None have been close to total comp at a public company.
All of them have been very competitive (or even higher!) on base salary.
But there's no recurring RSUs in a startup (since there is no stock to trade), and rarely bonuses. So total comp is about 30-40% of my total comp when working at public companies.
If you really do, agree that it's ok and a fun ride.
But where are you going to find a startup that pays market rate? Never seen one.
Base salary can be very close! But at an established company you are also making money on RSUs, often more than your salary. And usually have a bonus, which can be quite significant.
So your base salary might be 250K in an established company and 200K at the startup. Not a huge difference. But total comp at the established company is more like 500K-600K vs. at the startup just 200K. Huge difference.