User:Chrissurdi

Angel Employee
An Angel Employee is an individual who joins a startup early in the lifecycle of the business. Generally ranging from employee #1 to employee #50 or between the Seed stage and Series B stage of the startups investment round. This individual brings skills to the startup that are unique to the position and are strategically impactful to the business; thus enabling the employee to have an influence on the business in order of magnitude more effective than a typical employee. Often, but not always, this person brings a superpower or talent that is bespoke to the individual and not common amongst most employees.

An Angel Employee takes on more risk than a typical employee and thus is rewarded with equity into the startup through a stock option grant, or some other type of investment option, in addition to a standard salary similar to how an Angel Investor is generally rewarded more for taking a risk early in the business verse a venture-capitalist or late stage investor. Therefore, an Angel Employee is in a distinctive position to be compensated with cash in the short term and equity in the long term; assuming the startup has a successful exit. Giving credence to the saying: cash is king but equity is queen.