In my 15 years working on startups, one of the most powerful and recurring lessons I’ve learned is that people are what make or break a company. So at Cruise we strive to create an environment where the absolute best people want to work. This takes things like a strong mission and values, personal growth opportunities, solid execution, and attractive compensation. When it comes to compensation, however, job seekers are typically forced to make a choice based on their personal appetite for risk:
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Join a smaller private company with potential for the stock price to rise rapidly (but risk that the company dies before you can sell any shares).
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Join a public company where you can sell shares as soon as you vest them (but risk that the stock price won’t climb very quickly or even at all).
The world has become a bit more complicated lately. Private companies are waiting to go public for longer, so many employees join after the most aggressive stock price appreciation has occurred. And in recent years some of the best public tech
