Do not join Applied intuition at Series E valuation
Joined 7 months ago on their tool side of the business. My options were worth around $350k. The recruiter mentioned, or rather lied, that the strike would be at the Series D price. But to my surprise, I got a much higher exercise price for the Series E instead. This makes life super tough because you can't buy back those high strike price options when you leave. They do offer a tender offer, but it’s only going to fetch you peanuts as you can only sell a fraction of your vested shares. Plus, they make you work like there's no tomorrow, and work becomes the only thing in life. I would highly advise you to join FAANG instead or other startups where you have enough skin in the game to work super hard. Just creating this post to help out folks falling into this trap.
How’s the deal with luminar technology on their latest LiDAR sensor? I’m investor of $LAZR and trying to understand if applied intuition has legit capabilities or is it a shell startup and would have no product market fit.
I would say the culture values Speed which results in shitty product and the product being flaky.
I'd argue Applied is less of a shell than Luminar. Luminar went public via SPAC and had a pretty short runway last I looked. Applied products are in the market and decently successful. Just less visible than something like LIDAR. Can't say anything about the partnership with Luminar itself other than what's in the press release.
That's absolutely tough brother
So you only get to know the strike price after your start date and then the board meets next?
Correct this can be anytime spanning from a month or 7 months in my case.
There’s a lot more nuance here that’s missed. If you join at a time when the company is in the middle of a raise, your strike could change. Your strike is not going to change until another raise.
I interviewed with Applied a few months ago and I believe the number of options was listed in my offer letter. Yours was not? That's insane.
Subject to the approval of the Company’s Board of Directors, you will be issued a grant of Incentive Stock Options for a number of shares of the Company’s Common Stock equal to a Value of $350000 (the “Award”). The actual number of shares of the Company’s Common Stock subject to the Award will be determined by dividing the Value by the Company’s then most recent preferred financing round’s price per share as determined by the Board.
Most companies default to notional value, it’s up to the candidate to negotiate for something different, like specified option count or additional shares to make up for lost equity delta
Exact same scenario for me! I joined about the same time and i have the same ridiculous language in my offer. On top of that i ended up with the most toxic and incompetent manager ever (non-eng), what a shit-show, interviewing heavily now.
So FYI, some of the stuff you need to remember if you interview with Applied. Tender offers or liquidation only applies to 25% of your vested share. Last tender offer was around 2 years back, so tender offers each year is not the truth. Also on your offer letter you will have total option grant but remember this is not profit to you, you need to subtract (option*strike price) from the actual grant since you need to pay for each option.Each year you’d be eligible for 15 days PTO and work expectation is 50 hour work week.
Didn't they just raise the series E? Why did they give you series E stock, when you joined 7 months ago?
You only get options after the board meets
Still, that is really delayed. How long after joining did they finally give you the grant? 6 months?