Comment by neilv

I'm not comfortable with a startup laying off people at all. Startup compensation is almost always structured with equity as a part.

And the details are usually crappy, like even a very early critical engineering hire offereed only 1% ISOs, vesting over 4+ years, and a 90-day window to exercise upon severing employment.

When the company structures terms like that, for people who you'd think the company would want aligned with the success of the company, a company that's enjoyed the work towards equity of employees should make layoffs a last resort, including after having the founders take the hit (e.g., trading some of their much larger equity for funds to retain their team).