加工 (WORKING)

A few years ago, I had an opportunity to work with an exciting startup in Vietnam. Since I like the idea and the people on the team so bad, when I knew my design rate was too high for them, I suggested I would design their entire products in exchange for 2% of the shares company (not diluted).

几年前，我有机会与一个令人兴奋的越南创业公司合作。 由于我喜欢这个主意，并且团队中的人是如此糟糕，因此当我知道自己的设计速度过高时，我建议我设计整个产品，以换取2％的股份公司(未稀释)。

But they rejected my offer!

但是他们拒绝了我的提议！

At that time, I thought that my offer was a suitable solution to build a cooperative relationship. So I felt a bit down when that startup team rejected, but I never asked them why they made such a decision. Now looking back, I understood the reason behind that rejection: I was not ready to become a founding member for a startup.

当时，我认为我的提议是建立合作关系的合适解决方案。 因此，当那个创业团队拒绝时，我感到有些沮丧，但我从未问过他们为什么做出这样的决定。 现在回想起来，我理解了拒绝的原因： 我还没有准备成为创业公司的创始成员。

After taking a lot of time to dig deep, then becoming a co-founder of another startup, I figured out 5 things that can help you prepare well when faced with an early-stage startup joining offer.

在花了很多时间进行深入研究之后，成为了另一家初创公司的联合创始人，我发现了五件事，可以帮助您在面对早期初创公司加入要约时做好充分的准备。

1.达成正式协议，而不仅仅是承诺 (1. Make an official agreement, not just a promise)

You probably already know the Big Five (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) and other tech giants that started from a small garage. When beginning to work at a startup, founding team members often work on mutual promises and trust. If you agree to join at this stage, you can ask them to send a confirmation of the shares via email. When the company is officially established, or invested, you should sign a contract with clear terms.

您可能已经知道五巨头(谷歌，亚马逊，Facebook，苹果和微软)和其他科技巨头都是从一个小型车库开始的。 在初创公司开始工作时，创始团队成员通常会努力实现相互的承诺和信任。 如果您同意在此阶段加入，则可以要求他们通过电子邮件发送对股票的确认。 在公司正式成立或投资后，您应该签署明确条款的合同。

2.确定权益率 (2. Determine the equity rate)

Determining the equity rate is also a sensitive and challenging thing. If you don’t know how to define a suitable amount, you can begin with your salary first. Let’s see how to convert salary to equity rate in 3 steps:

确定股权比率也是一件敏感而富有挑战性的事情。 如果您不知道如何定义合适的金额，可以先从薪水开始 。 让我们看一下如何通过3个步骤将薪水转换为权益率​​：

• Step 1: Suppose that your desired yearly salary is $100K, with a growth rate of 10% per year, and the commitment period is 4 years. So the total salary of 4 years is $464K.

  步骤1：假设您的期望年薪为$ 100K，年增长率为10％，承诺期为4年。 因此4年的总薪资为$ 464K 。

• Step 2: You accept that you will only receive $100K for 4 years, and invest $364K in the company.

  第2步：您接受了您在4年内只会收到$ 100K的 投资，并向该公司投资了$ 364K 。

• Step 3: Then convert $364K to the equity rate based on the company value.

  步骤3： 然后根据公司价值将$ 364K转换为权益率 。

Afterward, you can discuss other founding team members on factors such as:

之后，您可以根据以下因素讨论其他创始团队成员：

• Commitment: Minimum weekly working hours.

  承诺：每周最低工作时间。

• Idea: A startup is usually started with an idea of solving a massive problem. Normally, who comes up with that idea is the one with the highest shares.

  想法：启动通常是从解决一个大问题开始的。 通常，提出此想法的人是拥有最高份额的人。

• Effort: When a startup is in early-stage, many things need to be done, like registering a business, finding clients, implementing projects, recruiting, and setting up the workplace, etc. However, the human resource is limited, so the founding team members have to take on many different things concurrently. Thus, the more things you are willing to do, the higher equity rate you can deal.

  努力：当一家初创公司处于早期阶段时，需要做很多事情，例如注册公司，寻找客户，实施项目，招聘和建立工作场所等。但是，人力资源有限，因此创立团队成员必须同时承担许多不同的任务。 因此，您愿意做的事情越多，您可以处理的权益率就越高。

3.所有权和情绪控制 (3. Ownership and Emotion control)

When deciding to be a founding member of a startup, this involves making a choice that we will care about and be responsible for it. Often this investment will lead us to pay too much attention to the partner’s mistakes, straining the relationship and cooperation, or negatively impacting the company.

在决定成为初创公司的创始成员时，这涉及做出我们将关心并对此负责的选择。 通常，这项投资会使我们过多地关注合作伙伴的错误，拉紧关系和合作，或者对公司产生负面影响。

I gained a valuable lesson about ownership and emotion control when there is a bad situation occurred. A founding member who was in charge of negotiating and contracting with a client made a mistake that caused my Product Design team to suffer from completing the project. And our company had no profits at all. When I saw the teammates who work directly with me daily felt terrible and got down, it made me uncomfortable and blamed that founding member quite harshly. But suddenly, I realized:

发生不良情况时，我获得了关于所有权和情绪控制的宝贵经验。 负责与客户谈判和签约的创始成员犯了一个错误，导致我的产品设计团队无法完成该项目。 而且我们公司根本没有利润。 当我看到每天直接与我合作的队友感到糟糕和跌倒时，这让我感到不舒服，并责怪这位创始人非常严厉。 但是突然，我意识到：

Whether they work directly with me daily or not, they are all my comrades.

无论他们是否每天直接与我合作，都是我的同志。

And it is not his fault alone. I thought that I trusted him completely, then I didn’t follow the project carefully. Until that situation happened, I was unable to assist in resolving it promptly.

不仅仅是他的错。 我以为自己完全信任他，所以我没有认真地执行该项目。 在这种情况发生之前，我无法协助Swift解决它。

After that, I comprehended this one:

在那之后，我理解了这一点：

“Trust, but verify” — Ronald Reagan.

“信任，但要验证”-罗纳德·里根(Ronald Reagan) 。

You can feel secure and trust your teammates if they do well 1–2 projects. However, this does not imply that they will always do well on all things without making a mistake. Therefore, trusting a person does not mean letting them handle all problems on their own, but understanding weaknesses to cover them when needed.

如果您的队友完成了1-2个项目，您将感到安全并信任他们。 但是，这并不意味着他们会在所有事情上都做得很好，不会犯错。 因此，信任一个人并不意味着让他们自己解决所有问题，而是理解需要时掩盖的弱点。

Showing empathy, and controlling negative emotion is the key to bond your teams and help you go through the hard times.

表现出同理心并控制负面情绪是与团队建立联系并帮助您度过艰难时期的关键。

4.计划归属期 (4. Plan for a vesting period)

Vesting period — the time to fully receive or sell the shares is usually 4 years. And shares are only valid when the company makes a profit. Hence, you have to maintain your determination and effort consistently for a long time. It means you invest not only money but also time into it.

归属期 -完全接收或出售股票的时间通常为4年。 股份只有在公司获利时才有效。 因此，您必须长时间保持一致的决心和努力。 这意味着您不仅要花钱，还要花时间。

Money can be earned, but time cannot.

可以赚钱，但时间不可以。

If you fail, will you still have the energy and courage to begin again after 4 years? Prepare yourself for a strong mentality with high concentration when deciding to become a co-founder of a startup.

如果失败了，四年之后，您仍然有重新开始的能量和勇气吗？ 在决定成为一家初创公司的联合创始人时，要做好准备以高度的专心精神。

5.为最坏的情况做准备 (5. Prepare for the worst-case)

Accepting a source of income that only meets the minimum living needs, and imaging that you will have to live like that for at least 4 years, that life would not be easy if you have many costly interests. How long can you survive on a low income when trade-off a large portion of the salary to equity?

接受只能满足最低生活需求的收入来源，并想象您将必须像这样至少生活4年，如果您有很多昂贵的利益，生活就不会那么容易。 当将大部分薪水折算为权益时，您可以在低收入下生存多长时间？

20% of Zero is Zero. Do not convert all salary into equity, especially startups, since the failure rate of a tech startup is 90%, so you should prepare for the worst case.

零的20％为零 。 不要将所有薪水都转换为股权，尤其是对于初创公司，因为技术初创公司的失败率是90％ ，所以您应该为最坏的情况做准备。

Ensure you have enough savings for over 4 years and plan for un-expectation cases such as broken laptops, ill, family issues, etc.

确保您在4年内有足够的积蓄，并计划好意外的情况，例如笔记本电脑破损，生病，家庭问题等。

I hope the above experiences can help you have other perspectives and be better prepared to join a startup.

我希望以上经验可以帮助您有其他观点，并为加入初创公司做好更好的准备。

My last advice: if you are in the first 4 years of your career, you should focus on investing in personal development instead of chasing the promises of shares from a startup.

我的最后一个建议是：如果您处于职业生涯的前四年，则应专注于投资于个人发展，而不是追求初创公司的股份承诺。

You are the Startup that brings the most value in the future.

您是在未来带来最大价值的初创企业。