What is fair compensation in a pre-funding startup when you join as an employee?

Imagine that you are about to join a startup (before raising funds) as a part-time employee.

You are paid for work (compensation is like in any existing, well-established company in the industry, but you do not have regular employee benefits – covering 401 plan, no equity, no health care plan, HO equipment fee, etc.)

You hope that after raising funds, you will become a full-time employee and receive benefits.

What compensation and benefits are reasonable to expect when joining a startup part-time before funding, and what should change once the company raises money and you go full-time?

• Which benefits make sense before fundraising (flexibility, learning, future upside)?

• Which ones should be non-negotiable after funding?

• And how can an employee strengthen their negotiating position when evolving from part-time to full-time (maybe with a higher compensation + benefits)?

As an example, I’m attaching a comparison of what a startup (1) typically offers versus an established company. (2)

You can see that startups often offer things like “dynamic team,” “remote work,” or “ownership of the strategy” – which don’t really function as benefits, but rather as expectations or situational responsibilities.

Understandably, established companies tend to have far more to offer in terms of tangible benefits.