How many outstanding shares of stock are there?

Question

Please help me out

Answer 1

Most companies make offers of dazzlingly large amounts of stock options. After all, 100,000 shares sure sounds like a big number--especially if the company goes public at, say, $20/share and then googles on up to $400/share like you're being led to believe. That's $40,000,000--you could buy Larry Ellison's house with that kind of money!

The number of options that you're offered is a meaningless number unless you know the total number of outstanding shares of stock. With these two pieces of information, you can calculate the percentage of the company that your options represent--and that's what counts. For example, 100,000 shares of 1,000,000 total shares is a lot better than 250,000 shares of 10,000,000 total shares.

You could simply ask what percentage you're getting, but that's a little crass, and some people may misinterpret crassness for a lack of good judgment. :-) However, just because you know what percentage of the company you're getting, don't make yourself crazy with delusional thoughts of how much you're worth.

Here are some “Guyed”lines for a startup that has already raised its first round of venture capital of $1-3 million with no more than fifteen employees. Don't just latch onto the top end of the range because there are many variables to consider including salary, cash bonuses, geographic location, and most important of all, your perceived value.

* Senior engineer: .3 - .7%
* Mid-level engineer: .2 - .4%
* Product manager: .2 - .3%
* Architect, i.e., the “main (wo)man,” though an individual contributor: 1 - 1.5%
* Vice presidents: 1.5 - 3%
* CEO, i.e., “adult supervision” brought in to replace the founder: 5 - 10%

(I know I'm going to regret providing these guidelines...those of you who read this blog in an RSS feed will be amused by how these numbers will change.) :-)

One more thing about these percentages: as the company becomes successful and grows--and perhaps raises more capital to fuel the growth--your percentages will go down. It's better to own a small percentage of a large company than a large percentage of a small company.

Answer 2

billions and billions. There are a lot of exchanges around the world. So the number is always changing from second to second.