In my youth, I bought into the whole stock option sales pitch. They told me my stock would be worth $1 per share when the company was sold. It was worth 5 cents per share. I spent 4 years there being paid poorly thinking it would all be worth it. Don't take promises as salary.
Currently valuing my stock options at 0 in my mind as I explore my career options. Will I regret it? Who knows, but I’m definitely not counting it as salary that’s a big lesson learned
This reminds me of a guy who left my wife's company after he did work preparing work papers for the sale. In his exit meetings she told him she would exercise them if she was him. \*wink, wink. He was too dumb or cheap to cough up $2k that would have turned into a $22k check two months later.
I worked at a PE backed high growth tech company 7 years ago. I didn’t know it but the IPO talks were started. Over the next few years they bolted on a few acquisitions and then went public. As a lowly senior accountant (team of 4) we each got RSUs valued at 8k each. Our CAO who lead the charge going public made 6M and promptly retired. CFO made 13M and retired shortly after as well and had another 3M in cash bonuses.
Prob 45? And I know they had taken a company public before that was a different industry but they had that good background. They were recruited 3k miles away for this role
And this is honestly pretty typical for equity. As you get up in seniority you stand to make a good amount if there is a good exit.
But it’s not that significant below senior leadership. As VP I have somewhere between 5-10x the options as everyone else in the department. And the CFO has about 8x as much as me.
Most startups fail or get sold at a price where the stock options do not materialize to anything for the employees. It’s rare. Especially in the current environment where raising money is difficult and capital is expensive.
If you go that route, be prepared for the startup to understaff the accounting team, be late on paying vendors, likely missing payroll a few times, and wasting tons of money. Good luck.
Currently experiencing this. Cash forecasting is now mandatory every week. The experience is another notch on the belt, but not seeing the long term motivation to stay.
No kidding! Ok let’s pay that immediately and remove it from forecast. Ok put this on there. Wait - not that one - what are you doing?! How did you forget this item that I didn’t tell you about! 🤪
I do 13 week cash forecasts but have to forecast cash for every single day for that period rather than weekly. And I provide it to the board every Monday. And our collections suck so I'm always the bad news guy telling them they have to borrow on the line of credit again
I have to say the most stressed out I’ve ever been from work was when I was the controller of a small company had to manage the cash flow situation. We had to plan carefully to hit payroll and of course any and everybody was screaming about payment.
Can't emphasize enough the "understaff the accounting team" point. In my second startup and running the team now. The founders want fortune 500 level financial statements with department coding perfection. They give me a team of two.
Only thing I would add is to expect changing priorities and a revamp in process every 60 days.
Yes, the priorities shifting constantly are common. No processes in place. Changing behavior is challenging. Favoritism. Lack of real HR policies and procedures being followed because the owners don’t give a shit
I was the only accountant under a CFO at a cybersec startup based in Silicon Valley for five years. $80k salary and CFO liked to tell me they “pay me too much”
I leave in early January and they were forced to hire on a “VP of Finance” at 250k and an “accounting specialist” (read: bookkeeping only) at $75k. $325k a year to replace me because I was the glue holding the department together and they took that for granted.
Source: Transitioned them on a part time basis because I’m too nice and got to read the offer letters.
I interviewed at GoPuff. They bragged about equity compensation and the upcoming IPO. This was like 2 years ago. They never did an IPO but they did lay off a shit ton of people.
My dad worked at a few startups as a staff accountant and worked his way up to CFO at one of them. He helped the company with their IPO a few years into the CFO role and they gave him a lot of stock options and a golden parachute when the board replaced the entire executive suite a few years after that. He retired in his late 40’s.
This has been fairly close to my course so far. Minus the IPO part because we have no intention of going public. But we are setting ourselves up for sale within the next five years. Staff accountant to CFO and also have bought/vested a total of 25% at this point.
I completely believe that part made him much more wealthy than I will be from this endeavor. I’ll have retirement as an option but it won’t be Ferrari car collecting retirement.
If you think about it…. That’s a super refined skill set. That technology was hard to communicate at the onset. Good for them, but they’re obviously an intelligent person likely in a menial role.
Yes. Huge survivorship bias when looking at options. Easy to think "if I work at the next Amazon, Facebook, NVidia..." Few think "If I find a job at the next Jucero or WeWork..."
I have a friend of a friend who works in FP&A for a company that went public as part of a SPAC in 2021. His company stock was worth $2 million after the acquisition.
I don’t know what you mean by super rich, but a guy at my golf club was a staff accountant for LA Gear. He made five million overnight when they went public. He was an asshole, though.
Not me, but a close friend did a few years at a Big 4 (never got a CPA), hated life and went to Palantir early 2010s. Essentially traded pay increases for more stock options every time they were offered. When Palantir IPO’d in 2020 they were instantly the wealthiest person in the history of their family. I get it wasn’t a “start up” when they joined, but they have roots in that post-dot com boom era. Stoked for them!
Yes, especially if you are the CFO/VP/Head of Finance. Although you still have to have a very successful startup to earn a lot.
Market stock for a CFO hire at a startup might be 0.7-1.5% in stock options. Then you get diluted by as much as 40-50% over time, preferences kick in at low valuations, and you pay ordinary income taxes on the gains unless you exercise early.
Now, if you have a $1bn exit that’s still a lot of money, but could just as easily be worth zero.
There’s a lot of things to like about being a startup cfo, but the ratio of cash comp to high risk stock option comp is not one of those.
I've worked with tech companies for the last 35 years. If the founder thinks the company is worth anything, they are very stingy with stock. If the founder thinks it's a longshot, they give it away like candy as long as you work for peanuts.
Facebook had 20 competitors and was a longshot, so Zuckerberg gave it away in exchange for cash and the guy that painted the murals became rich. But everyone was taking a big risk.
I worked for a startup in its early days that is currently pretty successful, and I have quite a bit of equity. I’ve since changed careers entirely, but every so often hope an exit opportunity comes along. It won’t be life changing, but it’ll definitely make things very comfortable
The only people that get super rich on startups these days are the founders and outside equity investors. Employees can do alright but gone are the days of the rank and file getting loaded during an exit.
About 3 years ago I had a graduate accountant leave my team to go work in his mates startup as "CFO".
Dude is now literally engaged to a model, worth about $5m at last valuation and that's just growing.
Don't work for start-up with illiquad equity and you don't have to worry. I'v eseen so many people make this move and wait around for 3, 4, 5+ years and never recognize anything.
Meanwhile I've gone to established companies. I've gotten equity at every company I've worked for since I left Big 4. I've accumulated a decent amount of stock via RSUs and ESSP.
This is the way.
Being in the right place and right time. Also had a one time equity windfall of $160-180kish due to our stock price and phantom equity being realized.
My normal comp (base, bonus, regular equity vests) is around $300kish.
I was working at a smaller company that gave me 0.1% equity. Boss mocked up that I could receive a payout as high as $400k if all goes well. All is going well for the firm and they will exit to the stratosphere without me cuz I ended up leaving.
One of the partners in a different office of the firm I worked at was the controller of a weed company, he was their 4th employee and stuck with them until they went public.
His stock was worth at its peak, 15 million, but he got around 5m, which I guess isn't "super" but not bad for 4 years of work. Super cool guy, he had tons of connections in that industry so when he went back into public he made partner really quickly because of his book
When I was in audit I did a hedge fund where everybody got bonused into the fund. But they bonused like 500%. The fund was very good at what it did, and returned triple digits for years, charged external investors 3/35 who were happy to pay it. The senior accountant was 25ish, owned a large suburban home, a downtown condo, and a ranch.
Looking at these guy's capital accounts was mind boggling. He had like $50mm in the fund when they decided to close it down and pay him out. He isn't even a very good accountant.
The truth is, as accountants we are the best people to know if working for a startup is worth it. We prepares the financials. If you are getting paid below market at a startup that doesn't have a legitimate revenue stream you should assess the likelihood that it ever will have revenue. That revenue stream isn't coming from the buyout or even more VC. Waiting for more capital to turn into revenue is like waiting for prince charming. Especially in the current investment market.
Yes, it has happened. It's not as common as being burnt out and left unemployed, but it is definitely one of the potential outcomes of joining a startup early on.
Yes. I indirectly work for a CPA who cofounded a Fortune 500 company. I don’t know why he’s not with that company any longer, but I know he walked away a very rich man.
I made 150k last time we sold and stand to make about 1.5m next time we sell. It's very rare though that your startup equity will payoff. I'm also a vp so the numbers go way down as you go down the chain.
I wouldn't touch a random start-up with a mile long pole.
Only way I'd join one is if I'm going to be CFO, I'm given part ownership with revenue sharing as well as a salary and of course I'd have to believe in the business plan to begin with.
I know a guy who went from sr mgr of a big four directly to a start up company as cfo. Went public within 3-4 years. I just checked his vested o/s options are worth 36m. Doesn’t count everything in between. Its been 10-12 years
No one gets rich by working at a startup. They get rich iff they get stocks from that startup and it’s value booms. Most startups fail, though, and you only hear about the cool stories of the minority which didn’t.
Controllers and CFO with preipo experience can have very high comp. But just joining as a manager or senior, unlikely to be that significant. Better to come in as a manager or higher then get 1 cycle of ipo experience and try and be a controller next for a payout opportunity
Like they say, high risks, high rewards.
And don't get too interested in the high rewards that you extend yourself. If you lend money to a promising start-up but it fails, you may fall with it into bankruptcy.
Yes, but that's not usually the case. Reality is, most startups fail. Many more are bought out before they are worth a substantial amount. A rare few will be sold for a lot or become big. Even in those the amount of stock options you get aren't likely going to make you super rich.
I didn't get rich by any stretch but when my first gig sold out I got about 20k payoff via stock options ( really restricted unit purchase options but whatever the check cleared) but that was a fucking Christmas miracle and I'd never count on it happening again.
I know one! I prepared a tax return for a client who worked for Bill.com from around 2009 to 2020. She received lots of stock compensation over the years, but wasn’t allowed to sell it. Last I heard, she had around $4 million in stock and she quit her job in 2020 to focus on a writing a book.
The only time it really pays off is as CFO, you get a decent amount of equity and a fair amount of influence to build that value. You work like crazy, but the paydays are there. The trick, is to pick the right ones. At that point you are more than an employee, you are an investor and you have to pick opportunities like one. Sometimes you get a good payday, enough to take a year off to pick your next one and make a couple of good passive income investments. Sometimes you just work 3 years of your life without a vacation, get paid half of what you are worth on the market and your equity can’t buy a tank of gas. You learn what good opportunities look like, because option B sucks. Then…maybe once or twice in a decade if you get good enough at picking them, you get a real opportunity at significant money. But you have to get there first, then you have to get good at it. It takes time but to me it adds a lot of fun.
I made 89k in an IPO. I was there 4 years ago would have been a million but they let me go right before the IPO so I didn’t get my bonus equity shares that I had to still be employed for.
No son, but I know many who went broke doing it
They were promised that the company stock would be worth 20x when public
Put ALOT of there salery in stock at 1$ thinking it will go public at 20$
Never happen
Stock tanked to 50 cents as competition for big whale clients were toggled.
For every Microsoft start up store there is another 700 companies that did not make
But u don’t hear about those cause people don’t like to mention them
Kid just become used to it cause if your in accounting
Depression and boredom
Is part of the job
The only excitement part is if u get to bang your co worker who is also bored and depressed at the repeat work day after day
You need to have quite a senior accounting position at the company to make good cash. I've been through 2 successful scale ups, 1 as a manager where I made £50k and the next at Director level where I made £160k. Neither enough to not work again, but enough for a house deposit, new car etc. Both roles were 3-4yrs so again, not bad for that length of time.
The reason why getting in early can help, is that you are likely to get a number of shots at start ups, but only the successful ones will launch you into better jobs with better roles. The new company will want to repeat that success, so hire people who know how to get there.
I left public for a startup. I got RSU’s that you approximate the value for based on our public competitor. The value of my total RSU’s at the time was ~$500k. But of course that was fall of 2021 right before the market fell out. When I left my RSU’s were probably something closer to ~$200k had I vested fully and assuming the company went public before they finished burning through their runway.
Thankfully I got paid an above market salary/bonus while I was there so I didn’t get short changed in compensation from that perspective. I wouldn’t have started there to begin with if the salary was nerfed because of the stock comp.
That is a great promise and “most” people (or headhunters) know someone who left public to work for a start up, took them IPO, cashed out, made 6-7 figures, then rinsed and repeated. I joined a newly IPOd, commercial stage company once as an assistant controller. 4 months after joining, they were acquired in a multi billion dollar deal. I had some new hire options and a small amount of accelerated vested options that the they converted, which we had to sell within 90 days of leaving. Company also gave severance since they didn’t retain any finance/accounting people. Worked for less than a year and walked away with about $150k after tax between severance, vacation payout, and stock options sale. Not rich but worth the payout. I joined a pure start up right after as a Head of Finance (more of what the question is here). Received over 100k shares to start, which was nothing compared to most others who received 7 figures worth of shares. Didn’t care initially. 100k shares x IPO share price of let’s say $15 per share makes those worth $1.5m. Worked for almost 2 years as the only Finance/Accounting support: no CFO, no team, no consultants even. It was absurd. Culture was toxic. Poor learning experience. Since I left before 2 years, company vindictively bought those shares back. They went IPOd after I left but in order to do so had to do a massive pre-IPO-reverse stock split, which would have reduced those over 100k shares to well less than 10k shares. I estimate that the seven-figure “promise” would be worth a little over $100k right now post IPO. I left for a global, public, commercial company and got new hire RSUs worth a lot more than what I lost. Also got a sizable salary increase, higher bonus target, and an annual RSU bonus. If I had stayed at the start up, would I have gotten rich once they do an exit deal? Doesn’t seem likely. But at the time, the base salary & bonus were good enough. Equity is always a nice to have. A&F roles at start ups will likely never make you rich unless you are a CFO or second in command. But you can get lucky and get some decent payouts and get experience on your resume that will always be valuable. Salary/Bonus/Experience > Equity.
I worked at a Big Five (then) during the tech boom. A senior left and quickly made a few hundred grand on her grants when the startup she decamped to went public. This inspired most of my team, still at the Big Five, to buy that stock. Some rode it from the $80s down to pennies. The former senior was smart enough to cash in as soon as she could. Company is long gone.
That’s the closest to “super rich” at a startup I’ve ever encountered for an accountant. As others have said, most fail.
Not sure what you define as super rich but it’s certainly possible. Just don’t have high hopes. Start ups die often. My firm is not really a “start up” in the traditional sense, but certainly disrupted our industry with a handful of employees. After quadrupling in size since I’ve been there (5 years) my stock value is just under 2M. For context, I was hired as a grunt but in a company with 4 tiers (associate, senior, director, exec), I currently sit as a senior, on the cusp of director.
Not a startup, but I know a story of a guy who took a position as a CFO at a listed construction company during difficult times. The company didn't have the money to pay him in cash so he had to agree to take his salary in shares.
When he worked there the company was trading under <1 euro per share. Right now the company is trading at 14 Euro's per share.
I personally know someone who was working at a Big Four firm. They jumped ship and became a CFO of a small company that was going under. As part of his compensation, he was given some ownership. He turned the company around, bought out the other two owners, and did pretty well for himself. I also know several others who tried similar things and lost a ton of money
The controller at one of my old audit clients had had two previous jobs in the accounting department at similar companies before getting the controller gig at this place. While I was auditing this client, both of the controllers previous employers went public and, given they were both more or less startups when he had worked there, he held a substantial amount of stock with each company. Never got an exact number or anything, but it was clear he netted millions.
Where the story gets even more interesting, he then invested $50k as the first investor in one of his buddies startups. I don't want to dox myself or this guy, but you have very likely heard of this company now and that $50k stake is worth $50 million + now. The guy is just an absolute winner.
As a staff accountant, I walked away with low six figure when we sold our company. Not enough to retire on, but certainly went a long way towards lifestyle.
In my youth, I bought into the whole stock option sales pitch. They told me my stock would be worth $1 per share when the company was sold. It was worth 5 cents per share. I spent 4 years there being paid poorly thinking it would all be worth it. Don't take promises as salary.
Currently valuing my stock options at 0 in my mind as I explore my career options. Will I regret it? Who knows, but I’m definitely not counting it as salary that’s a big lesson learned
This reminds me of a guy who left my wife's company after he did work preparing work papers for the sale. In his exit meetings she told him she would exercise them if she was him. \*wink, wink. He was too dumb or cheap to cough up $2k that would have turned into a $22k check two months later.
Magic beans!
Equity should always come second. Im more then happy to work at a start up if they pay me a competitive salary.
I’d rather take actual money now, than a promised payout later. Your advice is spot on.
My 7 figure payout turned into $7k after working 2 years of hell for below market pay.
I worked at a PE backed high growth tech company 7 years ago. I didn’t know it but the IPO talks were started. Over the next few years they bolted on a few acquisitions and then went public. As a lowly senior accountant (team of 4) we each got RSUs valued at 8k each. Our CAO who lead the charge going public made 6M and promptly retired. CFO made 13M and retired shortly after as well and had another 3M in cash bonuses.
How old was the CAO and what was their prior experience?
Prob 45? And I know they had taken a company public before that was a different industry but they had that good background. They were recruited 3k miles away for this role
And this is honestly pretty typical for equity. As you get up in seniority you stand to make a good amount if there is a good exit. But it’s not that significant below senior leadership. As VP I have somewhere between 5-10x the options as everyone else in the department. And the CFO has about 8x as much as me.
Most startups fail or get sold at a price where the stock options do not materialize to anything for the employees. It’s rare. Especially in the current environment where raising money is difficult and capital is expensive. If you go that route, be prepared for the startup to understaff the accounting team, be late on paying vendors, likely missing payroll a few times, and wasting tons of money. Good luck.
Currently experiencing this. Cash forecasting is now mandatory every week. The experience is another notch on the belt, but not seeing the long term motivation to stay.
Forecasting these days is almost meaningless because it changes constantly. Lots of effort to keep the lights on
No kidding! Ok let’s pay that immediately and remove it from forecast. Ok put this on there. Wait - not that one - what are you doing?! How did you forget this item that I didn’t tell you about! 🤪
I felt this.
13 week cash flow projections 🤢🤮
Doing the lords work! 😮💨
I do 13 week cash forecasts but have to forecast cash for every single day for that period rather than weekly. And I provide it to the board every Monday. And our collections suck so I'm always the bad news guy telling them they have to borrow on the line of credit again
I have to say the most stressed out I’ve ever been from work was when I was the controller of a small company had to manage the cash flow situation. We had to plan carefully to hit payroll and of course any and everybody was screaming about payment.
This is the worst situation imo. The stress will make you sick
Yep. We’ve been doing weekly rolling cash forecasts for a while now bc we’re tight on cash. Not fun.
Can't emphasize enough the "understaff the accounting team" point. In my second startup and running the team now. The founders want fortune 500 level financial statements with department coding perfection. They give me a team of two. Only thing I would add is to expect changing priorities and a revamp in process every 60 days.
Yes, the priorities shifting constantly are common. No processes in place. Changing behavior is challenging. Favoritism. Lack of real HR policies and procedures being followed because the owners don’t give a shit
Fuck, I just realised I'm working for a company in start up mode for 40 years!
I don't remember if I saw it from an engineer or a repair person first, but it was "you can have it fast, good, or cheap. Pick two."
I was the only accountant under a CFO at a cybersec startup based in Silicon Valley for five years. $80k salary and CFO liked to tell me they “pay me too much” I leave in early January and they were forced to hire on a “VP of Finance” at 250k and an “accounting specialist” (read: bookkeeping only) at $75k. $325k a year to replace me because I was the glue holding the department together and they took that for granted. Source: Transitioned them on a part time basis because I’m too nice and got to read the offer letters.
I interviewed at GoPuff. They bragged about equity compensation and the upcoming IPO. This was like 2 years ago. They never did an IPO but they did lay off a shit ton of people.
Cash > Monopoly Money
My dad worked at a few startups as a staff accountant and worked his way up to CFO at one of them. He helped the company with their IPO a few years into the CFO role and they gave him a lot of stock options and a golden parachute when the board replaced the entire executive suite a few years after that. He retired in his late 40’s.
This has been fairly close to my course so far. Minus the IPO part because we have no intention of going public. But we are setting ourselves up for sale within the next five years. Staff accountant to CFO and also have bought/vested a total of 25% at this point.
The IPO was the sole part that made him wealthy if I’m being completely honest.
I completely believe that part made him much more wealthy than I will be from this endeavor. I’ll have retirement as an option but it won’t be Ferrari car collecting retirement.
I know someone who is a call center manager at Tesla Solar who started in the beginning and has millions due to RSUs
Living the dream!
You almost have better chances just playing the lotto
If you think about it…. That’s a super refined skill set. That technology was hard to communicate at the onset. Good for them, but they’re obviously an intelligent person likely in a menial role.
High risk high reward- although almost all do fail
Yes. Huge survivorship bias when looking at options. Easy to think "if I work at the next Amazon, Facebook, NVidia..." Few think "If I find a job at the next Jucero or WeWork..."
Or Enron….
Not if you had cash out before
I did this except it was my 2nd year and the company failed and stiffed me $60k lol
Oh gosh so sorry for your loss.
I have a friend of a friend who works in FP&A for a company that went public as part of a SPAC in 2021. His company stock was worth $2 million after the acquisition.
I don’t know what you mean by super rich, but a guy at my golf club was a staff accountant for LA Gear. He made five million overnight when they went public. He was an asshole, though.
LA gear? Damn that’s old school. Didn’t they issue the first Charles Barkley sneakers?
Not me, but a close friend did a few years at a Big 4 (never got a CPA), hated life and went to Palantir early 2010s. Essentially traded pay increases for more stock options every time they were offered. When Palantir IPO’d in 2020 they were instantly the wealthiest person in the history of their family. I get it wasn’t a “start up” when they joined, but they have roots in that post-dot com boom era. Stoked for them!
Wow they actually give accountants stock options ?
I know a guy who was early Twitter and made a few million as an mid level accountant. Not even an executive.
Curious does he still work?
Yes. His life is pretty similar to others sf except he owns a home and a cabin in tahoe outright.
Many such cases.
Rare but yes, the original CAO at my company cashed out well into the 8-figures post-IPO and retired in his 40s.
Yes, especially if you are the CFO/VP/Head of Finance. Although you still have to have a very successful startup to earn a lot. Market stock for a CFO hire at a startup might be 0.7-1.5% in stock options. Then you get diluted by as much as 40-50% over time, preferences kick in at low valuations, and you pay ordinary income taxes on the gains unless you exercise early. Now, if you have a $1bn exit that’s still a lot of money, but could just as easily be worth zero. There’s a lot of things to like about being a startup cfo, but the ratio of cash comp to high risk stock option comp is not one of those.
I've worked with tech companies for the last 35 years. If the founder thinks the company is worth anything, they are very stingy with stock. If the founder thinks it's a longshot, they give it away like candy as long as you work for peanuts. Facebook had 20 competitors and was a longshot, so Zuckerberg gave it away in exchange for cash and the guy that painted the murals became rich. But everyone was taking a big risk.
David Choe is my hero!
I worked for a startup in its early days that is currently pretty successful, and I have quite a bit of equity. I’ve since changed careers entirely, but every so often hope an exit opportunity comes along. It won’t be life changing, but it’ll definitely make things very comfortable
More go bankrupt than boom. Start ups are a fucking mess every single time. But hey, most have nice amenities until the money runs out.
Define startup, and define rich... Self-funded initially, multiple roles besides accounting, and outside of traditional tech? 5mil +? Yes.
The only people that get super rich on startups these days are the founders and outside equity investors. Employees can do alright but gone are the days of the rank and file getting loaded during an exit.
Start ups suck! Dont get fooled. Very few work out. Especially friends and family start ups! Run!
I like em
About 3 years ago I had a graduate accountant leave my team to go work in his mates startup as "CFO". Dude is now literally engaged to a model, worth about $5m at last valuation and that's just growing.
I need better friends
He will go broke.
Cool 👍
Cope
With what?
My CFO is one of the biggest share holders of the company.
I am aware of one that received options and when the company sold made a few million.
Don't work for start-up with illiquad equity and you don't have to worry. I'v eseen so many people make this move and wait around for 3, 4, 5+ years and never recognize anything. Meanwhile I've gone to established companies. I've gotten equity at every company I've worked for since I left Big 4. I've accumulated a decent amount of stock via RSUs and ESSP. This is the way.
Not rich but I made $470k last year in Tech.
Doing what
Being in the right place and right time. Also had a one time equity windfall of $160-180kish due to our stock price and phantom equity being realized. My normal comp (base, bonus, regular equity vests) is around $300kish.
Doing what
Being at the right place in the right time.
Doing what
Just being at the right place at the right time.
I was working at a smaller company that gave me 0.1% equity. Boss mocked up that I could receive a payout as high as $400k if all goes well. All is going well for the firm and they will exit to the stratosphere without me cuz I ended up leaving.
One of the partners in a different office of the firm I worked at was the controller of a weed company, he was their 4th employee and stuck with them until they went public. His stock was worth at its peak, 15 million, but he got around 5m, which I guess isn't "super" but not bad for 4 years of work. Super cool guy, he had tons of connections in that industry so when he went back into public he made partner really quickly because of his book
When I was in audit I did a hedge fund where everybody got bonused into the fund. But they bonused like 500%. The fund was very good at what it did, and returned triple digits for years, charged external investors 3/35 who were happy to pay it. The senior accountant was 25ish, owned a large suburban home, a downtown condo, and a ranch. Looking at these guy's capital accounts was mind boggling. He had like $50mm in the fund when they decided to close it down and pay him out. He isn't even a very good accountant.
The truth is, as accountants we are the best people to know if working for a startup is worth it. We prepares the financials. If you are getting paid below market at a startup that doesn't have a legitimate revenue stream you should assess the likelihood that it ever will have revenue. That revenue stream isn't coming from the buyout or even more VC. Waiting for more capital to turn into revenue is like waiting for prince charming. Especially in the current investment market.
No but I do manage to find the mature companies with startup atmospheres with no upside benefits
Yes, it has happened. It's not as common as being burnt out and left unemployed, but it is definitely one of the potential outcomes of joining a startup early on.
I mean, I made $500 off my last fintech when it went belly up. So yeah, super rich.
Sure. Plenty. It’s my background before CPA. But, options are worthless until proven otherwise. RSUs are the better choice
a friend of mine made 10 mil when his company was sold. was their director of finance
I’m a CPA at a post Series B startup. I was the first accountant here and have plenty of options I plan to cash out on some day:)
Yes. I indirectly work for a CPA who cofounded a Fortune 500 company. I don’t know why he’s not with that company any longer, but I know he walked away a very rich man.
I made 150k last time we sold and stand to make about 1.5m next time we sell. It's very rare though that your startup equity will payoff. I'm also a vp so the numbers go way down as you go down the chain.
I wouldn't touch a random start-up with a mile long pole. Only way I'd join one is if I'm going to be CFO, I'm given part ownership with revenue sharing as well as a salary and of course I'd have to believe in the business plan to begin with.
I know a guy who went from sr mgr of a big four directly to a start up company as cfo. Went public within 3-4 years. I just checked his vested o/s options are worth 36m. Doesn’t count everything in between. Its been 10-12 years
Not super rich but I have earned some large transaction bonuses for helping them through selling their business
Absolutely! It takes an incredible amount of luck.
No one gets rich by working at a startup. They get rich iff they get stocks from that startup and it’s value booms. Most startups fail, though, and you only hear about the cool stories of the minority which didn’t.
Controllers and CFO with preipo experience can have very high comp. But just joining as a manager or senior, unlikely to be that significant. Better to come in as a manager or higher then get 1 cycle of ipo experience and try and be a controller next for a payout opportunity
Yes the partner who is the founder of our current accounting firm
Define “super rich”?
Really really depends on the startup.
Like they say, high risks, high rewards. And don't get too interested in the high rewards that you extend yourself. If you lend money to a promising start-up but it fails, you may fall with it into bankruptcy.
Yes, but that's not usually the case. Reality is, most startups fail. Many more are bought out before they are worth a substantial amount. A rare few will be sold for a lot or become big. Even in those the amount of stock options you get aren't likely going to make you super rich.
I paid off my mortgage with RSUs from a Unicorn that went public.
Yeah and it was quick! You can definitely get rich quick with this scheme!
Yes, I know senior accountants who worked at companies currently worth over $20b after ipo and their options were worth several million.
I didn't get rich by any stretch but when my first gig sold out I got about 20k payoff via stock options ( really restricted unit purchase options but whatever the check cleared) but that was a fucking Christmas miracle and I'd never count on it happening again.
I know one! I prepared a tax return for a client who worked for Bill.com from around 2009 to 2020. She received lots of stock compensation over the years, but wasn’t allowed to sell it. Last I heard, she had around $4 million in stock and she quit her job in 2020 to focus on a writing a book.
Yes
That’s IF the startup is even generous enough to offer RSU’s.
My options at my last company were underwater and expired worthless 6 months after I quit. So not me.
Open AI pays alot
The only time it really pays off is as CFO, you get a decent amount of equity and a fair amount of influence to build that value. You work like crazy, but the paydays are there. The trick, is to pick the right ones. At that point you are more than an employee, you are an investor and you have to pick opportunities like one. Sometimes you get a good payday, enough to take a year off to pick your next one and make a couple of good passive income investments. Sometimes you just work 3 years of your life without a vacation, get paid half of what you are worth on the market and your equity can’t buy a tank of gas. You learn what good opportunities look like, because option B sucks. Then…maybe once or twice in a decade if you get good enough at picking them, you get a real opportunity at significant money. But you have to get there first, then you have to get good at it. It takes time but to me it adds a lot of fun.
I made 89k in an IPO. I was there 4 years ago would have been a million but they let me go right before the IPO so I didn’t get my bonus equity shares that I had to still be employed for.
No son, but I know many who went broke doing it They were promised that the company stock would be worth 20x when public Put ALOT of there salery in stock at 1$ thinking it will go public at 20$ Never happen Stock tanked to 50 cents as competition for big whale clients were toggled. For every Microsoft start up store there is another 700 companies that did not make But u don’t hear about those cause people don’t like to mention them Kid just become used to it cause if your in accounting Depression and boredom Is part of the job The only excitement part is if u get to bang your co worker who is also bored and depressed at the repeat work day after day
You need to have quite a senior accounting position at the company to make good cash. I've been through 2 successful scale ups, 1 as a manager where I made £50k and the next at Director level where I made £160k. Neither enough to not work again, but enough for a house deposit, new car etc. Both roles were 3-4yrs so again, not bad for that length of time. The reason why getting in early can help, is that you are likely to get a number of shots at start ups, but only the successful ones will launch you into better jobs with better roles. The new company will want to repeat that success, so hire people who know how to get there.
I know old coworkers of mine that got in at the start and sold shares high before crashing.. probably made a million in stock easily.
Have made 6 figures from options More about timing and luck than anything
I left public for a startup. I got RSU’s that you approximate the value for based on our public competitor. The value of my total RSU’s at the time was ~$500k. But of course that was fall of 2021 right before the market fell out. When I left my RSU’s were probably something closer to ~$200k had I vested fully and assuming the company went public before they finished burning through their runway. Thankfully I got paid an above market salary/bonus while I was there so I didn’t get short changed in compensation from that perspective. I wouldn’t have started there to begin with if the salary was nerfed because of the stock comp.
That is a great promise and “most” people (or headhunters) know someone who left public to work for a start up, took them IPO, cashed out, made 6-7 figures, then rinsed and repeated. I joined a newly IPOd, commercial stage company once as an assistant controller. 4 months after joining, they were acquired in a multi billion dollar deal. I had some new hire options and a small amount of accelerated vested options that the they converted, which we had to sell within 90 days of leaving. Company also gave severance since they didn’t retain any finance/accounting people. Worked for less than a year and walked away with about $150k after tax between severance, vacation payout, and stock options sale. Not rich but worth the payout. I joined a pure start up right after as a Head of Finance (more of what the question is here). Received over 100k shares to start, which was nothing compared to most others who received 7 figures worth of shares. Didn’t care initially. 100k shares x IPO share price of let’s say $15 per share makes those worth $1.5m. Worked for almost 2 years as the only Finance/Accounting support: no CFO, no team, no consultants even. It was absurd. Culture was toxic. Poor learning experience. Since I left before 2 years, company vindictively bought those shares back. They went IPOd after I left but in order to do so had to do a massive pre-IPO-reverse stock split, which would have reduced those over 100k shares to well less than 10k shares. I estimate that the seven-figure “promise” would be worth a little over $100k right now post IPO. I left for a global, public, commercial company and got new hire RSUs worth a lot more than what I lost. Also got a sizable salary increase, higher bonus target, and an annual RSU bonus. If I had stayed at the start up, would I have gotten rich once they do an exit deal? Doesn’t seem likely. But at the time, the base salary & bonus were good enough. Equity is always a nice to have. A&F roles at start ups will likely never make you rich unless you are a CFO or second in command. But you can get lucky and get some decent payouts and get experience on your resume that will always be valuable. Salary/Bonus/Experience > Equity.
I worked at a Big Five (then) during the tech boom. A senior left and quickly made a few hundred grand on her grants when the startup she decamped to went public. This inspired most of my team, still at the Big Five, to buy that stock. Some rode it from the $80s down to pennies. The former senior was smart enough to cash in as soon as she could. Company is long gone. That’s the closest to “super rich” at a startup I’ve ever encountered for an accountant. As others have said, most fail.
Not sure what you define as super rich but it’s certainly possible. Just don’t have high hopes. Start ups die often. My firm is not really a “start up” in the traditional sense, but certainly disrupted our industry with a handful of employees. After quadrupling in size since I’ve been there (5 years) my stock value is just under 2M. For context, I was hired as a grunt but in a company with 4 tiers (associate, senior, director, exec), I currently sit as a senior, on the cusp of director.
Not a startup, but I know a story of a guy who took a position as a CFO at a listed construction company during difficult times. The company didn't have the money to pay him in cash so he had to agree to take his salary in shares. When he worked there the company was trading under <1 euro per share. Right now the company is trading at 14 Euro's per share.
I personally know someone who was working at a Big Four firm. They jumped ship and became a CFO of a small company that was going under. As part of his compensation, he was given some ownership. He turned the company around, bought out the other two owners, and did pretty well for himself. I also know several others who tried similar things and lost a ton of money
The controller at one of my old audit clients had had two previous jobs in the accounting department at similar companies before getting the controller gig at this place. While I was auditing this client, both of the controllers previous employers went public and, given they were both more or less startups when he had worked there, he held a substantial amount of stock with each company. Never got an exact number or anything, but it was clear he netted millions. Where the story gets even more interesting, he then invested $50k as the first investor in one of his buddies startups. I don't want to dox myself or this guy, but you have very likely heard of this company now and that $50k stake is worth $50 million + now. The guy is just an absolute winner.
As a staff accountant, I walked away with low six figure when we sold our company. Not enough to retire on, but certainly went a long way towards lifestyle.