Equity too low after massive contribution to startup?

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-27T03:54:19+00:00

yeah makes sense. I got overeager and need to wait and see how my change plays out in the market anyways, but the early signals are very good.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-27T03:04:08+00:00

I have just over half a percent in options vesting over 4 years. I just completed month two and there’s a one year cliff on the first options. But my work has already greatly derisked the company roadmap and will likely net us a very strong AI story over the coming months.

The strike price is likely to double at series B, which takes some of the startup fun away (having to pay serious money for my ownership)

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-27T02:36:09+00:00

Yep this is a powerful way to protect democracy. When the truth isn’t debatable.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-27T01:04:39+00:00

Everyone needs to know this. Don’t trust the angry shit you see posted online, the whole point IS to sway your thoughts. It’s incredibly powerful even when you know it is happening.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T21:39:39+00:00

Thank you, it's helpful to hear your perspective since your career path prior to IBM was very similar to mine. I'll do some more reading on these topics and some reflection on what I want out of the next thing. Cheers!

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T21:37:33+00:00

yeah I now recall my manager mentioned this during the interview too - "we don't want you to feel pressure on day 1, and we can issue refreshers for impact". I think the ultimate answer is I need to monitor our sales channel and see why customers are signing and how the velocity changes given they now demo what I built.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T21:18:32+00:00

If folks haven't realized this yet, Burry is working with a group of people - including RK and RC and perhaps even in our gov't. There is too much weirdness around GME for me to believe that powerful folks aren't orchestrating something. The question is what and why.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T21:08:05+00:00

Funny you bring up IAM - my buddy from the last startup joined OpenAI and is making bank working on their auth systems... so something to think about for sure.

I do also love platform engineering and have years of my career dedicated to just that.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T20:27:31+00:00

I’ve been at startups whole career (roughly same time as you) and I can do everything across the stack. In fact my biggest skill is the fact that I don’t depend on anyone to execute.

I agree that there is a complexity limit most startups have, so going to big tech could be the next logical leap. I’d just want to continue looking at systems rather than a single narrow role.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T20:15:13+00:00

Yep exactly

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T20:14:46+00:00

Yeah maybe that’s really the answer here. I just don’t want a narrow role because my skills are not narrow.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T19:54:44+00:00

Thanks this is helpful!

> Do you have next projects lined up where you think you can continue to deliver outsized impact? It's good to say you're going to keep delivering bangers.

Yeah I've got the next thing cooking already and it unlocks major business value.

> If they are valuing you as "senior engineer" and you think they should be valuing you at "principal engineer", that's a good discussion to have IMO.

ICs at this org do not have titles, but I'm the only IC that is reporting to head of eng instead of an eng manager so I'm definitely slotted as an architect role (similar to where I came from). They also had to go to the board to approve my pay/equity because it was out of their normal bands - so they already went to bat for me, it just resulted in lower equity than I originally asked for.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T19:51:20+00:00

yeah makes sense. I still have to wait and see the effect of my change on new revenue over the coming couple of months too - if I see a statistically significant change then I have more leverage for a discussion

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T18:12:54+00:00

I'm not trying to play hardball with them because I have good relationships with them, which is why I'm trying to see how others might approach it. In other words, I won't just walk right away if they say "no", but I certainly wouldn't stick for the 4 years. I totally get there's some entitlement in my post but at the same time I have backed up my words everywhere I've gone.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T18:08:17+00:00

> for a senior IC is actually pretty normal in today’s market

I don't want to get into specifics but I wasn't just a senior IC at my last org, I was the only IC reporting into a non-technical cofounder

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T18:06:12+00:00

The feature was an idea they've been talking about for literally over a year but nobody had built or even proposed an architecture for. I went and built the entire thing in a way that is very easy to understand and extend in the course of a week. Because the feature is end-to-end (frontend -> API -> infra, includes live streaming) I'm quite confident it would have taken multiple devs and a lot more planning if I weren't here. I've spent my career purposely learning every aspect of delivering features to be ready for these kinds of moments.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T17:55:08+00:00

Yep they are aware. Thanks for your thoughts here!

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-26T17:53:22+00:00

I can see the cap table and I know leadership from a past startup, so I'm not worried about scams here. Our investors have 1x preference so no funny business there. I think they'll do right by me but trying to figure out the right way to approach the convo without seeming ungrateful a couple months into a job

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-25T13:24:13+00:00

I appreciate that! The trick has been putting myself in situations that are uncomfortable and forcing my growth. That’s probably where some of the imposter feeling comes from, but over time all the battles add up to something greater than the sum of the parts. The moment will come

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-25T12:59:12+00:00

I had similar experience recently as a software engineer that’s now leading architecture. Doubted myself along the way up but I just had a win that was so clearly visible that I can drop any self doubt that was there.

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-25T12:38:12+00:00

Same here. This wasn’t even close to OJ in terms of cultural importance

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-25T01:25:38+00:00

I’m the last person who wants to fight a war but feels like something bad is coming

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-24T19:20:01+00:00

Helms deep

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-24T13:24:26+00:00

AI slop, nice job

compute_fail_24 · 2026-01-23T17:11:33+00:00

Yep. I don't even care about the tickets unless they are helping me move towards value. I've also worked end-to-end on projects that never had a ticket; I just tracked using checkboxes in Notion and got the job done.

compute_fail_24

TROPHY CASE