In fact, you should ask, especially if you think they'll say no. Don't be an ass, just ask the question professionally and politely, and be a little insistent about it (i.e. don't just roll over when they say no the first time. It's OK to ask again, and explain why it's important to you!)

How an employer responds to a difficult question that they don't want to say "yes" to will tell you volumes about their skill and demeanor. And if they gladly answer this question, keep pushing until you find one they won't answer.

If someone revokes your offer because you asked a question, you just dodged a HUGE bullet.

> If someone revokes your offer because you asked a question, you just dodged a HUGE bullet.

I was once in the compensation negotiation phase of an interview. I asked all the root comment questions about equity. They refused to answer any. I was insistent. Their tone changed. They pulled out of negotiation, citing "cultural fit" which I took to mean I was savvy enough to not be suckered.

The cap table can have sensitive information on it that might compromise employees and or investors or the founders themselves.

I don’t think being secretive about the exact details of the cap table is indicative of anything.

They should be able to tell you broadly how many shares there are and how valuable your equity grant is tho.

This is silly. You can literal export a high level view and change VC names to “VC #1” and employees to “Individual #1” and still easily relay the info that the employee needs. I don’t buy the privacy or security arguments.

The range in equity grants can still cause problems. The reality is exposing this information only works against you and limits your ability to negotiate with employees if you know it will be exposed to others.

I disagree completely.

That being said I believe company’s and founders should be as transparent as possible but sometimes that can come at a price and so it’s not ideal to be completely forthcoming.

The degree of secrecy also tells you how much of an owner you would be.

Honestly, it's easier to just avoid startups entirely.

The vast majority of them fail anyway, and it's a long shot to ask me to trust them not to fuck me over with equity based compensation.

100%

Working in a startup can easily turn into a rough ride - for not much benefit.

So you might just as well start a company of your own.

It sounds like you agree with some degree of secrecy and privacy in sharing the details of the cap table with an outsider (the not-yet-employee).

In my country cap tables are public information and I've never heard of a case where someone was compromised or otherwise hurt by this.