I've seen numbers thrown around in the range of $750K -$1.5M per employee, but this seems to be for VC funded companies correct? If you are a bootstrapped start-up with very little debt, 2-3 co-founders, but with no revenue or customers yet, what should be the per employee price for an acquihire?
Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
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Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#2Enough to make it worth your while, what that means is entirely up to you.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#3I think you should think about it as a multiple of what you would expect per-employee were the company to hire everyone off the street. So if you would get 10k options / employee off the street, what multiple of that is it worth to get the full team.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#4If you have no investors to answer to and very little debt, then there is no number. But here are some factors in play:
-Do you still believe in your idea to the extent you want to grind it out and see some serious upside?
-If there is serious upside potential and you want to bake that into the price to still see a nice reward then do that.
-If you're okay with not pushing through on this startup and realize it's not going to take off (or likelihood is low) AND you want to work for this company, be happy taking some lower multiple on your salary. $1MM per employee is probably a high amount if you have no revenue or customers or investors, but if you don't care about losing out on $200K, then shoot for the moon and negotiate as hard as you can.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#5[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#6More than they're willing to pay.
This is far more about negotiation than market rates. Who cares how much VC funded companies get, start by asking for 3 to 5 times what they are getting.
Flip the conversation, being bootstrapped, and having a dedicated team means you have no pressure to leave, so they must entice you with more money because you have no market forces acting against you.
Also, your team is there because they love you, not because your paying them, again another reason for them to give you more money.
VC repayment is tangible, it's easy to figure out how much VCs need to be made whole, loyalty and dedication are far more intangible and valuable.
If you negotiate like that you'll figure out pretty quickly whether they really want your team or whether they are trying to fill 4 seats.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#7Most likely $0. If you don't have any traction or investors, what makes you an attractive acquihire target? If it were so easy to throw together a few friends and make a million dollars via acquihire everyone would be doing it instead of applying for a job.
Acquihire is 30% about getting a team with proven ability to execute and 70% about paying back investors as a favor or a down payment on maintaining a good relationship with them. If your dream is really to get acquihired your best bet is to pull together enough traction to raise seed funding and then invest that money in hiring the best engineers possible before shopping it around to get acquired.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#8Don't negotiate against yourself.
This question is all about how valuable you are to that company. Does hiring the team and getting the technology increase their profits by 10%, 100%, 1000%? How much value are you bringing to the new company?
And don't devalue yourself because you aren't VC funded. Don't negotiate against yourself into saying a lower number. Find out how much you think your worth and come with your thoughts to the table and negotiate with the acquihiring company.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#9Acquihires are bought not sold.
Your acquirer will have some sort of price formula they use for these things and will have a price in mind usually. It's also hard to pin down exact numbers as they vary wildly by who is doing the acquiring.
You should dig a little and see if they've acquired anyone of a similar size and peg to that.
Re: Ask HN: How much should a bootstrapped startup ask for an acquihire?
#10Most likely $0. If you don't have any traction or investors, what makes you an attractive acquihire target? If it were so easy to throw together a few friends and make a million dollars via acquihire everyone would be doing it instead of applying for a job. Acquihire is 30% about getting a team with proven ability to execute and 70% about paying back investors as a favor or a down payment on maintaining a good relati…
They might have a great technological solution or expertise that the acquihiring company needs. Thus they might be paying for the technology instead of spending time and resources trying to develop it themselves.