What types of positions offer large pre-IPO grants? How were you hired? (referral from friend already working there or were you headhunted or what?) Were you aware of the IPO plans before applying, and is this the sort of strategy that is repeatable?
I was just an individual contributor dev. I was hired as a referral, though other folks we hired, even after me but before the IPO made out well.
I was aware of the IPO plans, though the price I was given was about 3x less than what it ended up getting to after the IPO, and it's now 6x less. In that sense, I was extremely lucky - if it had been at the original price and stayed there, I don't think it would have been more than 500K.
Repeatable? Probably not, just given the luck involved. However, I think the payout I was likely to get (200k-500k) was much more likely than getting the same payout from a real startup.
The strategy being looking for pre-IPO companies that plan to IPO within 1 to 2 years. Targeting these types of companies allows you to get market compensation with quite reasonable upside potential and seems a lot better risk/reward profile than joining a "real" startup.
The main question to me is how generous the company is with its grants. I feel like mine was very generous pre-IPO, as they pursued a retention strategy (not wanting the typical exodus of folks when the lock up expires).
However, if a company is not generous, it's likely not a viable strategy.
My strong belief is that you should go work somewhere that you enjoy the work, the people and you feel like you are being compensated appropriately. Getting "rich" is pretty much pure "luck", IMO.
