This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Equity Ask at a Series A Start-Up

Arlean147·Jun 26, 2023

I'm a VP of HR at a Series A Start-Up and in the process of renegotiating my equity stake. When I was hired I had originally asked for 80K options (.35) and was offered 50K options instead, which I took knowing I would come in and reset our comp bands and ensure equitability across the org. I'm planning to ask for a refresh to get me to a total of 160K options (.71)

Does this feel on par with your experience?

Filomena21·Jun 26, 2023

Just my two cents but to me it sounds crazy that a Series A Start-Up would already have an HR department, so I guess you guys are doing really well. I think in the current VC-backed landscape with all of the disruption and layoffs, there are huge disparities in what teams and compensation look like, so I'd go off of the company valuation rather than comparing to other Series A companies.If you look at the valuation from the last raise and multiply it by 0.71%, divide by 4 for vesting, and add it to your salary and any other annually vesting stock, does it look like what your market value would be if you were getting paid all-cash or working for a company with stock that is more liquid?

michelleross·Jun 26, 2023

If you have access to Carta, they have a good salary and equity data comparison tool to get a sense of what the market expectations are across roles, locations, size of company and equity round. I'd still try to get as many data points as possible from people in specific series A companies like you're doing here, but as a level set, the Carta database is keyed off of real data from the thousands of companies who use their software (though all anonymous and aggregated of course so it's directional, not company level specific). Good luck with the ask!