> What do you mean? Of course this is public knowledge. Anyone accepting an equity grant as an employee who doesn't know this isn't doing their due diligence.
Really. Can you tell me what were the employee gains of facebook, google and twitter on stock divided by the market compensation at the time that the engineers got? Where the engineers back then at every single founding round making a proper decision based on the information they had?
Please.
> Asking about the cap table of a small startup while interviewing is an entirely reasonable thing to do, and I've immediately discounted an interview at a company where they've been cagey about giving me details. I mean, I'm fine with them not breaking it down into what percentage each investor owns, but telling a prospective employee how much of the company in total is owned by VCs vs. founders vs. employees/option pool is pretty uncontroversial.
Its not always available on the decision for the employee. The cost of acquiring that information is orders of magnitude different from the employee than the founders/investors. Its still asymmetry of information, even if it is provided, which it isn't always. In any case, if thats what you believe, then you would have no concerns of making it public, since it already is.
> This doesn't really make sense. You've just described a publicly-traded company, and obviously an early-stage startup can't afford to be one of those.
> Really. Can you tell me what were the employee gains of facebook, google and twitter on stock divided by the market compensation at the time that the engineers got? Where the engineers back then at every single founding round making a proper decision based on the information they had?
Of course I can't, but a) why would _I_ personally be able to, about companies I've never been financially tied to?, b) that's not really the point. It's exceedingly rare that anyone outside of an institutional investor, founder, or non-founding C-suite exec will get 10% (or even close to that) of the proceeds at IPO or acquisition time. If that's not common knowledge to anyone who has either worked at a startup and/or has done a minimum amount of reading about startup equity grants, then I guess I don't know what common is.
> Please.
Mind keeping it civil? That kind of dismissiveness is rude and uncalled-for.
> Its not always available on the decision for the employee. The cost of acquiring that information is orders of magnitude different from the employee than the founders/investors. Its still asymmetry of information, even if it is provided, which it isn't always. In any case, if thats what you believe, then you would have no concerns of making it public, since it already is.
I'm not saying anyone makes it public. Asking questions like these is pretty basic advice when receiving an equity grant, and companies that I actually respect give a reasonable answer. No, they're not going to open their books to you, but they'll give you enough information to at least be useful.
> Why cant it afford to be "one of those"?
The cost to IPO (assuming the unlikely event you can find a reputable bank to underwrite) would easily eat up any funding you've gotten in the beginning, and then some.
> Mind keeping it civil? That kind of dismissiveness is rude and uncalled-for.
It's a ludicrous position to say that because the rules of hidden information are known, there would be no effects in the information where to be known. I can't fathom making the argument that because there is potential access to information, its the same as the information being public being done in good faith.
> I'm not saying anyone makes it public. Asking questions like these is pretty basic advice when receiving an equity grant, and companies that I actually respect give a reasonable answer. No, they're not going to open their books to you, but they'll give you enough information to at least be useful.
If its useful to collect it and for the investor to know it, it's useful for the employee to have access to it, and it is also useful for the employee for the general public to have access to it. An employee is woefully unprepared to make an analysis in comparison to investors, even if the company disclosed 100% to their employees, there would still be asymmetry of information.
There is no extra effort for the startup. Just disclosure.
> The cost to IPO (assuming the unlikely event you can find a reputable bank to underwrite) would easily eat up any funding you've gotten in the beginning, and then some.
The cost of an IPO is made up. If there is anything showing that clearly, is the craze for ICO's.
Really. Can you tell me what were the employee gains of facebook, google and twitter on stock divided by the market compensation at the time that the engineers got? Where the engineers back then at every single founding round making a proper decision based on the information they had?
Please.
> Asking about the cap table of a small startup while interviewing is an entirely reasonable thing to do, and I've immediately discounted an interview at a company where they've been cagey about giving me details. I mean, I'm fine with them not breaking it down into what percentage each investor owns, but telling a prospective employee how much of the company in total is owned by VCs vs. founders vs. employees/option pool is pretty uncontroversial.
Its not always available on the decision for the employee. The cost of acquiring that information is orders of magnitude different from the employee than the founders/investors. Its still asymmetry of information, even if it is provided, which it isn't always. In any case, if thats what you believe, then you would have no concerns of making it public, since it already is.
> This doesn't really make sense. You've just described a publicly-traded company, and obviously an early-stage startup can't afford to be one of those.
Why cant it afford to be "one of those"?