Startup vs Big Tech Offer
4-year total comp: startup equity upside vs guaranteed RSUs.
Compare that to the startup's current valuation ($50,000,000) — a 72.6× outcome at success rate 45%.
Ask anything about your result
The math above is deterministic. AI explains what it means — it never recalculates the numbers.
About
Comparing a startup offer to a Google / Meta / Microsoft offer is hard because the math is different: one is mostly cash + liquid RSUs, the other is cash + lottery-ticket equity. This calculator runs a probability-weighted 4-year total comp comparison so you can see when the startup is actually a better expected deal — and when you're paying a $200k 'mission tax' to be there.
How it works
- 01Enter base, signing bonus, target bonus, and equity for both offers.
- 02For the big-tech side, enter expected RSU stock appreciation per year.
- 03For the startup, enter current valuation, your ownership %, expected dilution, and outcome probabilities.
- 04We compute probability-weighted 4-year total comp and the gap.
Examples
Senior eng, $400k vs $250k+0.1%
Big tech: $1.6M over 4 years. Startup base+bonus: $1.0M. Equity expected value: ~$60–120k. Gap: ~$500k 'mission tax' to take the startup.
Early employee swing
Joining a $20M seed with 1% pre-dilution can flip the math if your conviction on outcome > 30% chance of a $500M+ exit. Below that, big tech almost always wins on EV.