The best branding team in the world would make you believe BetterUp is the best place in the world to work. A great culture, a rocket ship growth company, an amazing product… here is the catch: most if not all of it is smoke and mirrors. I joined BetterUp 2-3 years ago and have put my sweat and tears into this company. Nights, weekends and everything in between. Believe me when I said I was underpaid and overworked but I didn’t always mind it because the CEO Alexi Robichaux and CFO Vinh Le will make it known time and time over again that you’re working at a rocket ship! “You know what that means right? Equity!” That’s right! It means that all that equity that gave you will be worth a ton of money one day right? I mean they keep showing graphs about how much the company has grown and how much we’ll be worth when we IPO one day right? Here’s the thing…..
Every person joining BetterUp or currently employed at BetterUp needs to know this. Your equity is worth nearly nothing. Have you ever wondered why the company provides little to no information about what your equity is worth? There was one meeting with our CFO and a lawyer last year that confused anyone in the audience but other than that nothing! I hired a CPA to figure it out for me and I felt like I was dealing with the IRS asking BetterUp’s finance team basic numbers my CPA needed to determine my equity valuation. I mean, these are basic details any company should share with employees but I felt like I was asking going to get fired for just asking them.
Low and behold… my equity as a software engineer would amount to about 20k per year. Hired another independent CPA who confirmed the same figure. Alexi and Vinh, where is all that rocket ship fuel actually going if not employees?
Folks don’t waste your time here.
