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Exploding Offers Suck

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#161

Post by vxNsr »

maxbrown wrote: post #159
vxNsr wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a point about Shark Tank and similar shows: the actual meeting is a lot longer than the ~6 minutes that they show you. Some go on for hours, and they just cut to the interesting bits, so that 30 sec shot clock thing is often just theatrics, they've been discussing things for a while and know before whether they're gonna say yes.

I learned this recently, the most interesting part of which was that the founders stand silent in front of the investors for at least a few minutes while the lighting and sounds and such are set. I wonder, don't you think the shot clock offer is real even though they've been talking longer than we've seen?

It might be kinda real, but I think it's a lot easier to see coming and prepare for than the show implies. I've only watched the last two seasons of shark tank, but from what I remember the offer always seems to come out of left field, Mark doesn't appear interested and then he suddenly makes an offer. I don't think it's usually like that, but it makes for some great television.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#162

Post by GigabyteCoin »

pmarca wrote: post #139
davemel37 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of SharkTank where Mark Cuban would make a shot-clock offer and give 30 seconds for someone to accept the offer. Here's the thing. Mark Cuban can walk away from any deal, at anytime and not feel like he is missing out. So, while you are certainly getting the shorter end of the stick with an exploding offer...It's usually coming from a place where the person making the offer has enough leverage to be o…

Mark is performing for television. The only appropriate response to a 30 second offer is "f--- off".

>Mark is performing for television

That, and most of the deals he (a Billionaire) is talking about investing in on Shark Tank involve him doling out incredibly small and insignificant sums of money for equally small and insignificant (in his eyes) returns.

He really doesn't care if you take the offer or not on Shark Tank, because even if you do and you succeed beyond your wildest dreams, it's not going to make him any richer than sitting through a Dallas Mavericks game would.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#163

Post by bruceb »

nihaar wrote: post #83

When my co-founders and I were applying to accelerators in 2008, we had been accepted into a Philadelphia based accelerator called DreamIt shortly before our YC interviews. Not knowing if we would get into YC, we accepted with DreamIt as it was an exploding offer. A few weeks later we found that we got accepted by YC. After deliberating it for sometime, we went back to the DreamIt team and told them that we wished to…

If DreamIt accepted you then a few weeks later after you had plans to move there pulled their offer in order to accept another team how would you take it? I am not saying I would have not taken the YC admit but I would understand DreamIt being a little pissed.

Of course PG helped you wriggle out of your DreamIt acceptance. He sees you as an investment. Who wouldn't try to protect their investment?

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#165

Post by mcguire »

hkmurakami wrote: post #103
davemel37 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of SharkTank where Mark Cuban would make a shot-clock offer and give 30 seconds for someone to accept the offer. Here's the thing. Mark Cuban can walk away from any deal, at anytime and not feel like he is missing out. So, while you are certainly getting the shorter end of the stick with an exploding offer...It's usually coming from a place where the person making the offer has enough leverage to be o…

The one thing I've learned about negotiating is that you absolutely must know your negotiating position before evaluating your strategy. Parent post and grandparent post are both perfectly fine points, and how they apply to each of us depends entirely on our set of circumstances.

"you absolutely must know your negotiating position before evaluating your strategy"

This is essentially true in any decision-making situation, not just financial negotiations.

I was a really crappy grad student, but I went into my dissertation defense knowing exactly what I was bringing to the table and it went very well. Ditto for the better job interviews I've had.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#166

Post by mathattack »

r00fus wrote: post #142
27182818284 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those curious, This American Life did a whole podcast on the end-of-month car sales thing. It was quite fascinating and really does exist. One of the more interesting points in the entire thing came in the first minute where they point out that things like the end-of-month sales impact the entire US economy because it has to do with auto sales, and GM and steel working and etc follow up the chain. Weird to think…

It'd make a lot more sense to everyone if the 30-day periods were staggered for each employee, and if they could score "assists" for fellow employees (said fellow employee would need to agree, of course). This would probably make the sales process far more sustainable and team-oriented. Of course, companies that haven't set their own quarter ends (my employer's quarter ends on a different day than the calendar quarte…

The challenge is the mini-deadlines are externally driven. "How much revenue will we report to our VC and/or Wall Street?"

Otherwise sales would just be a rolling commission with no end dates.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#167

Post by judk »

morgante wrote: post #117
edmccard wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the other 9 candidates who are waiting in line don't want that [to wait for the first candidate to contemplate the offer] If any of them have other offers, they might appreciate _some_ extra time to decide between them. EDIT: Nevermind the previous bit--I was still thinking in the context of multiple simultaneous offers, which I guess is not a thing. And if not, then if the first choice turns it down, you make an ex…

> And if not, then if the first choice turns it down, you make an exploding offer to the second (to be fair to the next 8), and again to the third (to be fair to the next 7), etc. Is there ever a situation where an exploding offer is not in everyone's best interest? The ideal scenario would be if it were socially acceptable to rescind offers—thus making the exploding offer unnecessary. An employer could make offers t…

A rescindable offer worse than a deadline, because the deadline is unpredictable.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#168

Post by judk »

smcl wrote: post #154
sama wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

only in the early years of YC did we require an answer right away. as much time as the founders want has been the unofficial policy for awhile, but i thought it was time to share it.

It seems a wee bit disingenuous that YC are claiming a sort of moral high ground over other companies who are doing exactly what YC were doing.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson about how business works.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#169

Post by judk »

larrys wrote: post #99
nedwin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to hear more about your experience in negotiation. What resources do you recommend? Has this mostly come from experience or elsewhere? If you want to take it off list: dwyer.ed@gmail.com :)

Experience starting quite a long time ago. And geez there's a boatload of things to take into account and they have to become second nature (like playing a sport or self defense) so you just have to spend time and practice all the time and keep practicing. I actually keep my own notes on all my thoughts and techniques that pop into my mind. Here is one as example. Timing. Timing is important. I take into account not…

With negotiating talent like this, it may have been related to the divorce.

Re: Exploding Offers Suck

#170

Post by judk »

dangerlibrary wrote: post #59
brm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the equivalent of an 'early decision' application like in US colleges?

Early decision only exists to pad college's acceptance and yield statistics. There's no obvious benefit of ED to an incubator interested only in financial returns.

And to comfort students who don't want the hassle of applying to a dozen schools.

Top schools like Harvard have non-exclusive Early Action offers.

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