Ask HN: Help with offer negotiation

6 points by verite 11 years ago | 14 comments

i got a job offer with a highly reputable startup with ~30 employees and a 50m valuation.

i am a software engineer with a top b.s., state school m.s., and two years of experience (in which i was very successful). i am currently unemployed; my last salary was 96k and i had 0.2% of a 40 employee / 20m valuation company.

i was offered 100k and 0.07%. i thought the equity offered was very low, and asked for 100k and 0.22%. the company came back with 106k and 0.07%, or 100k and 0.08% (i guess they want to keep their equity). they claimed that this offer is in 75th percentile of comparable companies.

i am talking to them in person tomorrow. i'm scraping salary data from angel.co at the moment. what else should i do/know?

thanks!

byoung2 11 years ago |

Where is this company located? If it's Silicon Valley, those numbers are very low. If it's Idaho, that's a different story. So we need to know that, and more importantly, we need to know what salary you want (is the $100k and 0.22% what you really want, or what you thought they'd agree to?).

First of all, I hope you didn't tell them that $96k number before they offered $100k. If so, you screwed yourself by anchoring your offer to a low previous salary.

Second, if they are even discussing salary, it means they like you and they have already mentally committed to you. Going back to the drawing board will mean weeks or months of reading resumes, interviews, negotiations, and possibly recruiting fees which will cost easily $20-40k. In that light, giving you $20k extra would be a bargain. The fact that they went from $96k to $106k proves that.

Third, I wouldn't let equity be the deciding factor (that could just be me), since it could be worth $0 (and 90% of the time it probably is).

As far as negotiating, I suggest you read this post in full: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

verite 11 years ago | |

Thanks for your help! I am certain that they like me -- I mean, I have an official paper offer that I can sign.

It is in Silicon Valley. I haven't disclosed salary history.

I thought they may agree to 100k and 0.2%, and/or I could use that as leverage to ask for more salary instead.

I would be happy with 100k and 0.2%, 120k and 0%, or anything scaled in between.

I had already read that post.

logn 11 years ago | | |

But 100K at .2% and 120K at .0% means you value them at $10m. Their counter to you revealed they value themselves at $60m. And their valuation of record is $50m. I'd counter with .05% and $120K which they might counter with .05% and $118K.

verite 11 years ago | | |

Er, nevermind I guess. My (written) offer got rescinded.

chadkruse 11 years ago |

> they claimed that this offer is in 75th percentile of comparable companies.

Empirical data is the best data: https://angel.co/salaries

Bummed OP had the original offer rescinded, but for anyone reading this in the future, a quick Google search for "startup salary survey" should bring up a few additional resources. I've filled a number of these out in the past and the data is always awesome. Lots of 'em are behind paywalls though, so beware.

verite 11 years ago | |

I think AngelList is not strictly speaking empirical data -- it is what a company provides as advertisement, not what it is actually paying.

How one decides "empirical data", as well as "comparable companies" and "comparable candidate" are all subject to very broad interpretation.

For instance, GlassDoor has way lower salary numbers than AngelList. But they have their share of problems too -- while the numbers are empirical, they are often dated (and have no account of equity compensation)