Look past the headline number to what you actually own and what it might be worth. Ask for the specifics: how many shares (not just a rupee value), what percentage of the fully diluted company that is, the strike price, the current fair market value, the vesting schedule and cliff, and the exercise window if you leave. A big number over a huge share count can be a tiny real stake, and a high strike eats your upside. There is no way to value private equity precisely, so treat it as a lottery ticket with real odds attached, weigh it honestly against cash, and do not take a large pay cut purely on a number nobody can promise.
4 resources, 1 India-specific, 3 link-checked.
The most thorough plain-language reference on vesting, cliffs, strike prices, and exercise windows. Read it once and stop being confused by your grant letter.
From Holloway by Holloway
Open holloway.com →The clearest short piece on how to think about giving up and holding equity, and why a smaller slice of a bigger outcome is the whole game.
From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham
Open paulgraham.com →A plain-language India primer on what an ESOP actually is, how vesting and exercise work, and how it is taxed.
From ClearTax by ClearTax
Open cleartax.in →A working glossary of the words on your cap table, from the company that stores most of them, so the jargon stops getting in the way.
From Carta by Carta
Open carta.com →The same ground, over in Raise money, our Starting Up track.
