"Before you speak with the person, get them a spreadsheet breaking down your offer, and be accurate. Show what percentage equity they can expect to get in the company. Show them your current valuation. Lay out the case for whatever your expected multiple is. If you think the company will 20x from $50 million in the next four years, don't just leave it at that, say why.
On the same spreadsheet, include information you have on the other companies they are considering. If they're looking at Dropbox or Snapchat or whatever it is, put the expected upside right next to yours. Build formulas into the spreadsheet so the candidate can play around with them and calculate for themselves what they think will happen at each place"
I'd be curious to see the specific numbers on that spreadsheet as well. Where is the data sourced from? Is it one engineer that conducted multiple interviews or do they pertain to statistical averages.
