Re: tech wtr pre-ipo stock options II

["Rick Ramsey" <rick -dot- ramsey -at- east -dot- sun -dot- com>]

In my experience the disparity hasn't been so drastic.  Long ago, before
startups got such high valuations, I was recruited early by a startup that
needed a writer.  I was employee 15 and got boatloads of shares, only
slightly less than the original engineers.  Unfortunately, I'm using the
shares as wallpaper right now.  Just recently, a colleague of mine was in a
similar position, becoming employee 20 or so of a company that now has 1,000
employees and will probably go public this year, and he got about 75% of the
shares that the original (and very senior) programmers did.  Other writers
who later joined that company got about the same ratio of shares compared to
programmers who joined when they did.

In my experience, a good basis for comparison is salary.  If a techwriter
makes 80% of a programmer's salary, he/she should get 80% of the shares.

Rick
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2000 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: tech wtr pre-ipo stock options II


> >
> > 1.  I guess a better way of asking the question would be:
> >
> > does anyone have data about the ratio of:
> >
> >     stock options offered to a sr tech wtr
> >     -------------------------------------             =  ??
> >     stock options offered to a programmer
> >
> >
> > this way of looking at the situation would
> > constrain all other variables
> > (total number of options, time to vest, amt vested per time period, etc)
>
>
> Tech writers will generally get 1/3 to 1/4 the options that a main line
> programmer would. Recent examples: Java programmer we placed got 2200
shares,
> tech writer at same office got 650. This is based on my ancedotal evidence
and
> not a scientific survey.
>
>
> > 2.  Are there professional resources (compensation consultants or
> > brokers)
> >         who might be willing to discuss this?
>
> MY company, Anitian Consulting, provides representation services. There
are
> other that do the same.
> >
> > 3.  Does anyone have any references to written material or web sites
> >     that discuss the issue? ( I have checked the resources on techwtr-l
> > site)
>
> You'll be hard pressed to find any resources like this. There is no hard
and
> fast way to determine what is a good offer and what is not.  As I
mentioned
> before, get a valuation on the company or negotiate in terms of percentage
> stake.
>
> Good luck
> Andrew Plato
>
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