A start-up with pre-seed closing round average of 5 days is to soon begin its fourth and final pre-seed round @ $15M evaluation, up from a current $12M. Planned for Q2 of next year is a first Seed round $40M eval. Their offer as the 12th employee and lead software engineer of one of their two teams:
$80K base + $40k non-diluted shares with SAFE conversion dilution of 25% for each round. 10%-20% salary bumps after each funding round.
18-month cliff; 5 yr vesting schedule.
The cliff and vesting seems very harsh given what feels like a "meh" compensation package compared to my current base salary, but Im not experienced in this department and having difficulty in placing a quantifiable value behind the equity.
Do I have enough information to get such an understanding? If the current evaluation is $12M and I join now with an offered $40K in shares or options at the upcoming $15M pre-seed, does that mean I get
$40K / $15M = 0.267%
equity in the company? Or because of the 25% SAFE dilution, does it become
($40K * 75%) / $15M = .2%
What are the questions I should be asking at this point to understand the value of offered equity?