Negotiating Your Equity
What's negotiable, how to make the ask, using market data, and the exact scripts to use.
What you’ll learn
- ✓What's actually negotiable (and what isn't)
- ✓Using comp data from Levels.fyi, Carta, and AngelList
- ✓Negotiating the grant size vs. the strike price
- ✓Asking for an extended exercise window without torpedoing your offer
- ✓Scripts for making the ask without sounding greedy
- ✓The double-ask: equity + early exercise + 83(b) in one negotiation
Most candidates negotiate salary. Almost nobody negotiates equity — and that's a mistake that can cost you more than any salary negotiation you'll ever win. Equity negotiation is where the real leverage is at early-stage companies, and most founders expect candidates to ask.
The key insight: equity is more flexible than salary at early-stage companies, and less flexible than salary at late-stage companies. Knowing which situation you're in changes everything about your approach.
In this chapter, you’ll work through the exact framework for negotiating your equity. We cover each of the key topics with worked examples, real numbers, and actionable steps you can take immediately.
- ✓What's actually negotiable (and what isn't)
- ✓Using comp data from Levels.fyi, Carta, and AngelList
- ✓Negotiating the grant size vs. the strike price
- ✓Asking for an extended exercise window without torpedoing your offer
- ✓Scripts for making the ask without sounding greedy
- ✓The double-ask: equity + early exercise + 83(b) in one negotiation
Equity Decoder
Stop guessing. Start knowing.
12 chapters. 38 pages. An equity calculator. Everything you need to decode any offer.
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