Negotiating a pay raise without equity

You are so f#cked

You should've asked this question BEFORE joining.

Unless you're a key employee, you don't have much leverage now since they have money to hire.

Your options to negotiate are:

1) I'm a key employee, I know shit and I will quit and not transfer my knowledge unless you up my equity.

2) I feel screwed, you really should do the right thing (believe it or not this has worked if the the founders like you)

If the market is willing to pay you more than $65k with or without benefits you should leave. Not giving any stock to employee#1 is OK, not having a <em>conversation</em> with employee#1 about equity and keeping him in limbo is not OK.

Leave. If they counter an offer, ask for significant equity.

No hope here... no 1 and 2 are evil fuckers who just used u. Find better people to deal with and yes negotiate better before sign anything.

So annoying, feel your pain....

Thanks for the responses guys.

I should have said earlier that i WAS given 0.5% equity originally and bought in for another 0.5% when i started. I meant to say that i was going to negotiate the pay raise without any regard to an equity raise as well.

anyways.. i was offered a 4.5% raise and promised the 'gift' stock (not options) would be revisited soon. I accepted because I need the income now but I do feel shafted.. we have raised almost $1m through 2 different rounds and have a small but inconsistent revenue stream. all things considered i feel like the founders are taking the piss w/me.

I will be looking to move on by the end of the year but they are paying for a professional certification that I'd like to finish before quitting.

can they force me to cash out my equity when I leave? it might not be a bad idea I am not convinced our business model is going to work.

Thanks