Thread by @GergelyOrosz

“I’m a senior engineer and got an offer from a FinTech unicorn. The salary is higher than what I make and I heard good things about the eng culture.

BUT.

There’s no equity.

I’m conflicted if I should take it. What is your take?”

Ok, you know my thoughts on equity. But:

1. The best startups/scaleups offer meaningful equity to employee, especially engineers on top of a solid salary. Period. (More on equity: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/equity-for-sof…)

So this place is not top of market in this sense. However, this doesn’t mean you should ignore them:

2. Where are you right now? And why are your options?

Ask yourself these:
a) Do they pay more to what I make?
b) Would I learn more to what I learn now?
c) Are the people and challenges exciting?
d) Is this my best offer?

If the answer is “yes” to 3 out of 4, don’t ignore them.

3. Not being offered equity in a fast-growing scaleup might not be that bad in one way:

you can leave any time without regrets on the equity. You have none! Find a just exciting pace that pays a bit better *and* issues equity? You’re free to go!

4. I strongly believe scaleups *not* issuing any equity are incentivising exactly this: people to leave to another scaleup who does.

Equity is a cheap way to retain ppl, and give real ownership. “Be an owner” only really works if you do give some ownership vs just encouragement.