the solution: a centralized clearinghouse that uses the gale shapely deferred acceptance algorithm
Exploding Offers Suck
31–40 of 178 posts
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#32A dear friend and excellent negotiator told me that when he gets any kind of short-term exploding offer, the first thing he does is verbally reject the deadline. And the second thing he does is ignore the deadline and offer feedback only after it has passed. I've seen him employ this many times in practice and it has always worked out. I don't want to be responsible for anyone losing a deal, but remember: when someon…
> when someone offers you an exploding offer, it's because they really, really want you to take it. Couldn't it be because they've got a lot on their plate and after a certain period of time they want to free up their brain cycles and stop wondering if you're going to accept that deal? Couldn't it be that you're barely preferred and making the deadline shows them that you're excited about the offer? Missing the deadl…
It's imaginable that there's a very short-term deadline affecting a deal. But remember: that puts the side with the deadline at a disadvantage, not an advantage. Consider these examples: really needing to sell something for the money, desperately needing someone to fill a job, needing to use a scarce item in the short term, etc. If one of these is happening for real, then the offer they make will have to be compellingly high and convincing, demonstrating their position of weakness. If someone offered you 5X your normal rate and explained they needed a job done this weekend, that's not a negotiation strategy on their part.
But feigning indifference and giving you a short-term deadline for an offer you're unsure you can beat -- that's just a negotiation move, and personally, I would call them on it. Again, I don't want to be responsible for failed application of this :-)
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#33A dear friend and excellent negotiator told me that when he gets any kind of short-term exploding offer, the first thing he does is verbally reject the deadline. And the second thing he does is ignore the deadline and offer feedback only after it has passed. I've seen him employ this many times in practice and it has always worked out. I don't want to be responsible for anyone losing a deal, but remember: when someon…
> when someone offers you an exploding offer, it's because they really, really want you to take it. Couldn't it be because they've got a lot on their plate and after a certain period of time they want to free up their brain cycles and stop wondering if you're going to accept that deal? Couldn't it be that you're barely preferred and making the deadline shows them that you're excited about the offer? Missing the deadl…
The key insight is that there's an emotion inside people's heads that's driving their decision-making. You can't see it, and if they're good negotiators they don't want you to see it, but it's there and it'll remain there even if you don't accept the offer.
If they gave you an exploding offer, then that signals that the emotion is "We really, really want you, and we're afraid someone else will snap you up." If it looks like someone else snaps you up and then you suddenly, miraculously become available a month later - what's the emotion? It's usually elation that you happen to still be available.
The one exception is people who are susceptible to sour grapes. "Well, we can't get you, therefore we didn't really want you in the first place." These offers disappear, but you often don't want to work for companies like this anyway, as it shows that management can't get over personal feelings of rejection to do what they'd judged rational a month earlier.
BTW, this is why it's usually not a problem to return to a past job that you've done well at and left on good terms. They liked you then, there's no reason why they wouldn't like you now.
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#34Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#35Exploding offers make perfect sense in situations like this. Especially if you're given 48 hours, that's plenty of time to accept/decline. And if it's not enough time then you weren't ready to play ball yet anyway. If I'm making someone an offer, I'm not giving them weeks to decide so that they can go shop around for something better.
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These guys dont just want YC's cast-offs, after all. That is thoughtfully provocative. I have literally zero evidence to go from, but I suspect that Y Combinator is like Harvard or Yale: they could get rid of the group that they actually admit and go for the next tier, then achieve similar outcomes. (In other words: there are so many strong applicants that they can't take them all.) This is just to say that even ta…
Im sure a ton of the companies who apply to YC and dont get in are still Grade A. But you have to trust YC knows what they are doing, and the A+++ companies will be picked over before they hit second or third tier. You have to remember that investing in companies is a lottery game. Most angels/vc's profits are made on that 1 in a million company with a 1000x return. If YC wants access to truly the best companies, the…
> But you have to trust YC knows what they are doing, and the A+++ companies will be picked over before they hit second or third tier.
If this were true, YC would be the size of Exxon. Picking A+++ companies is a heuristic.
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#37A dear friend and excellent negotiator told me that when he gets any kind of short-term exploding offer, the first thing he does is verbally reject the deadline. And the second thing he does is ignore the deadline and offer feedback only after it has passed. I've seen him employ this many times in practice and it has always worked out. I don't want to be responsible for anyone losing a deal, but remember: when someon…
> when someone offers you an exploding offer, it's because they really, really want you to take it. Couldn't it be because they've got a lot on their plate and after a certain period of time they want to free up their brain cycles and stop wondering if you're going to accept that deal? Couldn't it be that you're barely preferred and making the deadline shows them that you're excited about the offer? Missing the deadl…
Whenever I've offered an exploding offer in the past, it's because I had several candidates: an extremely strong candidate and several strong but somewhat weaker candidates. In general, all of the candidates have a limited timeframe to make a decision, and there's a risk of losing all candidates if I waited for an indefinite time on the strongest candidate.
In other words, candidates sometimes also need an answer within a certain timeframe (often for very legitimate reasons; a job change can often be a life-changing event) and that means that there are some real time-limits across all of the candidates (in both directions).
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
This post exemplifies why you don't take legal advice from strangers on the internet.
Is there case law that shows verbal acceptance of contracts are legally binding?
Email and Oral acceptance of terms can be legally binding in contractual agreements.
You don't need to dig up a civil court case to know that verbally accepting a contract without intending to fulfill it is naive and potentially dangerous.
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#39I got an exploding offer for employment and came to the same conclusion. The company is called Loyal3: https://www.loyal3.com/
Steer clear of them.
"Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like."
Re: Exploding Offers Suck
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These guys dont just want YC's cast-offs, after all. That is thoughtfully provocative. I have literally zero evidence to go from, but I suspect that Y Combinator is like Harvard or Yale: they could get rid of the group that they actually admit and go for the next tier, then achieve similar outcomes. (In other words: there are so many strong applicants that they can't take them all.) This is just to say that even ta…
Im sure a ton of the companies who apply to YC and dont get in are still Grade A. But you have to trust YC knows what they are doing, and the A+++ companies will be picked over before they hit second or third tier. You have to remember that investing in companies is a lottery game. Most angels/vc's profits are made on that 1 in a million company with a 1000x return. If YC wants access to truly the best companies, the…
But you have to trust YC knows what they are doing, and the A+++ companies will be picked over before they hit second or third tier.
IMO, there is still too much luck involved to make this true to the extent it matters in this case. YC has picked several things that didn't pan out, and of course several that did. There have also been multiple follow ups from YC rejects that went on to be much more successful than some companies that WERE picked