At my last company they had no equity going in, and added it on Jan 1st a year later.
When I spoke to the founders about raises for the engineering team, the CTO looked at me funny.
"we just gave everyone stock options, why do they need a raise?"
Why?
Because a few of the engineers had young kids that were just starting school, and equity on a 1 year cliff won't pay those fees.
Because in Sydney there are enough start-ups that any one of the engineers could get an offer for 10-50% more base salary with options on top.
The founders were genuinely great guys, but they couldn't see the wood for the trees.
At my last company they had no equity going in, and added it on Jan 1st a year later. When I spoke to the founders about raises for the engineering team, the CTO looked at me funny.
"we just gave everyone stock options, why do they need a raise?"
Why?
Because a few of the engineers had young kids that were just starting school, and equity on a 1 year cliff won't pay those fees.
Because in Sydney there are enough start-ups that any one of the engineers could get an offer for 10-50% more base salary with options on top.
The founders were genuinely great guys, but they couldn't see the wood for the trees.