Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter

by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson

situation where a company is offering you a lower salary offset by stock options. Before you can determine whether that’s a good deal, you need to know the overall valuation of the company. If the company already put out an IPO (an initial stock offering), you can calculate its market value by multiplying the company’s stock price by the number of shares outstanding. If it hasn’t issued any stock yet, it’s going to be harder to figure out. You’re probably going to have to ask the founders what their method of determining the valuation of the company was. If they don’t want to tell you, or give you a vague answer that doesn’t make sense, then it’s probably not a deal that you want to pursue anyway. If you’re being offered stock, you need to know whether it is vested or not. Most stock options are vested, which means you have to stay with the company a certain amount of time before you can cash them in. If your option doesn’t vest for four years, you need to ask yourself if you’re comfortable staying with the company that long. If not, the equity might not be worth it. A lot of times people hear the terms “equity” or “stock options” and think they’ve hit the lottery. It is true that equity and stocks are one of the quickest ways to get a lot of money, but you just can’t walk into a start-up situation blindly. You have to educate yourself and ask a lot of difficult questions early in the process. That way, if the start-up you’re working for does become one of the rare ones th...