SentinelOne layoffs and the equity compensation most people miss

SentinelOne is laying off 230 people. That's 8% of the company at a one-time cost of about $25 million (Sophie Shulman, Ctechnews)

$25 million to let 230 people go, and nearly half of it tied to equity, not cash. Averaged out, that seems like a real number. But layoffs are never averaged out. The equity is concentrated at the top, where it's the biggest part of the package and the least understood part of the exit.When a layoff like this hits, the conversation is almost always about one number: severance.

That's the number the company puts in front of you. It's the number in the press release. It's the number you take home and weigh against your rent.

It's also rarely the most important number.For a lot of people being shown the door, the bigger question isn't the severance check. It's the equity, particularly the unvested shares: the grant that was months away from a cliff (the options nobody mentions in the exit conversation because the company has no incentive to bring them up).

People tend to assume that equity is simply gone the moment they're terminated. Sometimes it is. Often it isn't. The timing of a termination, the treatment of unvested shares, and what happens at the cliff are far more negotiable than most employees realize.

But you can't negotiate what you can't see. And the company on the other side of the table can see all of it. What your equity is worth, and exactly what the timing of your exit saves them.That asymmetry is the whole problem. It's also the whole reason we built FairPlay.

If you've been laid off and the only number anyone put in front of you was severance, you're probably only seeing half the picture.What's the part of your own equity package you wish someone had walked you through before you signed?