<story><title>Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?</title></story><parent_chain><item><author>rubicon33</author><text>&amp;quot;Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I&amp;#x27;ve made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I would love to know how.  Am I just stupid?  How am I missing these opportunities?  Someone above posted that 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings.  And you&amp;#x27;re saying that a &amp;quot;fairly small&amp;quot; company netted you $2,000,000 savings?&lt;p&gt;I am failing at life, apparently.</text></item><item><author>civility</author><text>First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options:  $0&lt;p&gt;Second startup, I was told I&amp;#x27;d get 5% of the company (no contract though).  I quit after a year without pushing the topic:  $0&lt;p&gt;Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I&amp;#x27;ve made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time.  I&amp;#x27;m retiring this year.&lt;p&gt;I learned a lot of great things at those first two companies, but I would never recommend a startup from a financial point of view.  I almost joined a third startup, but I didn&amp;#x27;t, and they folded as well.  I suspect you&amp;#x27;ve got better odds going to Vegas and putting your salary on a number from the roulette table.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>faangthrowaway</author><text>Just to add some concrete FAANG numbers for comparison...&lt;p&gt;I started at BigCo four years ago as a SWE, after my phd in a not-cs hard science. My starting salary was $130k, with about $30k for signing bonus and moving fees. At my first full year, I received an additional $60k in vesting equity, for about $200k total.&lt;p&gt;Last year I made Senior SWE, which gave a bump to $165k base pay. Meanwhile, stock equity trickle has continued to grow, and looks like ~$100k this year. And an additional $40k from bonuses for performance, recruiting and general &amp;#x27;company has too much money&amp;#x27; put the projected total for the year at about $300k pre-tax (and not including health or other benefits).&lt;p&gt;I live afaict unusually frugally. I don&amp;#x27;t drive, live in a shared house, and don&amp;#x27;t have short humans to worry about. But I occasionally travel to interesting places and give ~$8-$10k a year to stuff I care about. After four years at BigCo, I&amp;#x27;ve got about $450k in the bank+investments. So, not a million, but probably way better than I would have done with the startup scene... and it sounds like the one recruitment bonus I&amp;#x27;ve gotten so far is better than most people ever see from a startup exit.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?</title></story><parent_chain><item><author>rubicon33</author><text>&amp;quot;Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I&amp;#x27;ve made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I would love to know how.  Am I just stupid?  How am I missing these opportunities?  Someone above posted that 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings.  And you&amp;#x27;re saying that a &amp;quot;fairly small&amp;quot; company netted you $2,000,000 savings?&lt;p&gt;I am failing at life, apparently.</text></item><item><author>civility</author><text>First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options:  $0&lt;p&gt;Second startup, I was told I&amp;#x27;d get 5% of the company (no contract though).  I quit after a year without pushing the topic:  $0&lt;p&gt;Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I&amp;#x27;ve made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time.  I&amp;#x27;m retiring this year.&lt;p&gt;I learned a lot of great things at those first two companies, but I would never recommend a startup from a financial point of view.  I almost joined a third startup, but I didn&amp;#x27;t, and they folded as well.  I suspect you&amp;#x27;ve got better odds going to Vegas and putting your salary on a number from the roulette table.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>civility</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve never worked for a &amp;quot;big&amp;quot; company, much less one of FAANG.  Although, I knew a kid who went to Apple, and he did well.  I also had a friend from Intel, and he did well too.&lt;p&gt;My situation was much more than 4 years, but it was steady (exponential) growth at a nice rate, and I&amp;#x27;m exiting in my mid 40s.  Maybe I could&amp;#x27;ve done better, but to the point of this topic, my one stable job did much better than the three startups I was exposed to.</text></comment>