I worked at a company for roughly five years, that sold for 250M. When I was hired I was like 4th engineer, but by the time I left I had 2nd most seniority in engineering. Exercised my mostly vested options when I left.
I got mid-5 figures. In the year following my departure to BigCo, the difference in my salary was more than what my options ended up being worth.
One of the C-level guys who was there for 8 months when the company sold made 100x what I got. He wasn't a founder. He came on late in the game and basically had nothing invested.
That's why working for a startup hoping to get rich is a sucker's bet. The game is rigged against you unless you're a company officer.
They were ISO's, I only knew how many shares I was granted, but by the time of the exit, following several rounds of funding, it ended up being around 0.02%.
This is the context everyone needs to share when telling their story of startup compensation.
It very much looks like you got screwed on equity even before dilution.
An early and somewhat senior employee should be getting anywhere from 0.5% to 1%. If the company is high quality, raised funding on standard terms and is actually successful, you'll still get diluted but not down to 0.02%.
Your comp sounds off by an order of magnitude based on what I can infer.
The fact that you didn't know how many total shares were outstanding at the time you were granted your ISO options is more proof that you likely got screwed.
I got mid-5 figures. In the year following my departure to BigCo, the difference in my salary was more than what my options ended up being worth.
One of the C-level guys who was there for 8 months when the company sold made 100x what I got. He wasn't a founder. He came on late in the game and basically had nothing invested.
That's why working for a startup hoping to get rich is a sucker's bet. The game is rigged against you unless you're a company officer.