Weekly B2B Marketing opportunities at high growth tech companies. We do the research. You apply.
🧠 Startup Equity 101: What Is a 409A Valuation (and Why It Even Matters)?
If you’re exploring a startup offer, you’re probably being offered stock options. Companies sell the dream. Your potential upside. But you need to understand the real value, what questions to ask and the range of potential outcomes.
Here’s the key term you need to know: 409A valuation.
“A 409A valuation determines the fair market value (FMV) of a private company’s common stock—and it directly impacts how much you’ll pay to exercise your options.”
— Carta
⚖️ Why it matters
Your strike price (the cost to buy your shares) is based on the 409A. The lower it is, the better it is for you.
If you're offered 20,000 options at a $1 strike price, and the company eventually exits at $20/share, your potential upside = $380K.
But if the 409A was $10 instead? Your gain shrinks significantly, and your cost to exercise (amount of money you’ll be coming out of pocket for) is 10x higher.
Key Questions to Ask
Before you accept that offer, ask:
What’s the most recent 409A valuation and my strike price?
How many total shares are outstanding (to know your % ownership)?
Will I be able to early exercise?
What’s the post-termination exercise window?
There’s always going to be a level of uncertainty when accepting an offer with equity involved. But ask questions. Do what you can to have as much info as possible.
🧮 Want to calculate the value of your offer? I created this free Equity Calculator
And if you're comparing offers or just want to talk it through, I'm happy to help.
… And here are this week’s opportunities:
Synthflow AI - Growth Marketing Manager, B2B - Remote
Justworks - Performance Marketing Analyst - NYC
OpenAI - Enterprise Field Marketer - SF
Babbel - B2B Content Marketing Manager - NYC
Notion - AI Product Marketing Manager - NYC
Baseten - Field Marketing Manager - NYC
Couchbase - Field Marketing Manager - Remote/NYC/Boston
Abnormal AI - Sr Field & Channel Marketing Manager - Remote
Zocdoc -Sr Content Marketing Manager - NYC
Mistral AI - Content Marketing Lead - Palo Alto/Remote
Kajabi - Sr Product Marketing Manager - Remote
SandboxAQ - Sr Product Marketing Manager - Remote
Figment - Director of Product Marketing - NYC
Eigen Labs - Director of Product Marketing - Remote
Suki - Sr Director of Product Marketing - SF
Quickbase - Sr Director, Growth Marketing - Remote
SimilarWeb - Director of Field Marketing, Americas - NYC
Convai - Director of Content Creation - SF
Keystone AI - Head of Marketing - NYC
Harri - Head of Marketing - NYC
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