It's a subjective term. But IMO, a few hundred grand after-taxes is real wealth to somebody making $150k a year. It can bend the net-worth growth curve of your life -- a huge home downpayment, elimination of your student loans, etc. Be smart, take an educated risk, and IMO don't listen to people who say equity is worthless.
I'd love to see real data on what percentage of tech workers who receive equity ACTUALLY end up cashing out for over, say, $100K. Not a HN Survey, because of course everyone here has $10MM in equity, a mansion on the Peninsula, and a supermodel spouse. But a real survey across the huge tech company landscape, in and out of Silicon Valley.
Over a 4 year grant? This is just a guess, I don't have the IRS database at my hands. Maybe $200-300k after-tax sounds more reasonable? Like I said above -- "with some luck"
You have not yet actually made a guess you've just kept asserting that "a lot of money" is "a lot of money" and I agree. A lot of money is a lot money. I just think that modulo nobody is actually seeing a lot of money from start-up employee equity.
The problem is that it's not an easy thing to estimate. I know I've had equity grants that I thought were worth $x but turned out to be worth $x * 4. But you don't sell all of it at once, and you don't pay all of the tax bill when you sell, so it's a very hard thing to know. $200-300k after taxes is, I'm sure, not a rare outcome over a 4-year vest.
