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How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

blog.keen.io

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Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#101

Post by tptacek »

rprasad wrote: post #57
tptacek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what this critique has to do with the point of the article. This is, I think, a more careful (and lucrative) negotiation process than 99% of engineers are apt to us. The point of the post was to explain that process, presumably in the hopes of benefiting other startup employees. Do you disagree with the methodology? How? Let's talk about that, and not what you think about the blog author's personal life.

His point is that the methodology is flawed because of the unique circumstances of the author being engaged to the CEO. This skews the inputs upward in her favor.

Do you think the negotiating framework she wrote about here is unlikely to yield good results for normal startup people?

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#102

Post by colmvp »

potatolicious wrote: post #81
rdl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're already well-off enough to not need income, or have a rich doctor as a spouse, it's quite reasonable to trade salary for equity. Also, I'd love to take $50k/yr + 1% equity in an already successful startup. Say, Facebook.

> "If you're already well-off enough to not need income, or have a rich doctor as a spouse, it's quite reasonable to trade salary for equity." It is never reasonable to trade your skills at substantially below-market compensation - regardless of if you can afford to do so. I have a lot of savings, but that doesn't make it reasonable for me to start lighting cigars with $20 bills. Equity is a form of compensation, in…

Unless lighting cigars with $20 bills could give you more money, I don't see that as an applicable analogy. If anything, it's a version of gambling.

Taking a significant paycut can be worth it if the options offered proportionately compensated the salary disparity IF the startup exits AND at a number that you estimate it could potentially hit.

If one isn't willing to take that risk then they should opt for less equity/no equity but a fairer market value.

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#103

Post by dkador »

dkador wrote: post #76
tptacek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree with the last part of your comment; I think that nails my uneasiness about this particular offer.

You think that if a company offers a sizable equity percentage as part of their comp it signals something negative about that company?

(Couldn't reply directly to you, rdl, sorry.)

I agree that offering an office manager 5% is silly and offering a founder-level person 5% could make sense. I guess I was more curious to see what you think the right ranges are.

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#104

Post by rhizome »

sbov wrote: post #74
joezydeco wrote: post #70

I'd like to hear more about the insanely vague "Health Insurance" on both sides of that spreadsheet. Looks like a complete match and no problem, right? I went from an established company that offered an awesome family PPO plan ($0 monthly premiums, 95/5 coverage, $750 family deductible, paid vision/dental) to a startup that offers a way worse one: ($780 monthly premiums, 90/10 coverage, $3000 family deductible, no vi…

Agree - this could be a huge difference in total package value and it's glossed over. At my company we have what I call dental "insurance". As in, it covers about 0-10% of any given procedure.

Maybe better pronounced "insure-ish"

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#106

Post by wetzler »

fratis wrote: post #4

A tip for people writing on corporate blogs: let us know who you are up front. Whether there's a byline under the title or a short intro sentence/paragraph preceding the article, knowing who you are gives the reader a way to frame what your story. Because the tech industry is so heterosexual male-dominated, when I read that the author was engaged to the CEO, I first assumed I had misunderstood, then I thought the aut…

Thanks for the feedback. I realized the article was confusing so I added an intro.

However, I feel no need to mention my gender or sexuality when introducing myself. If I didn't have a clearly female name, should I have said "Hi, I'm Pat, and I'm a female in the tech industry"?

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#108

Post by wetzler »

shasta wrote: post #83
chasing wrote: post #12

Wait, what? Firstly: She's engaged to the founder. Secondly: This is on the company blog (which indicates she might not be 100% forthright). (And what am I supposed to learn about Keen.io, here?) Finally (and most importantly): Did she run the numbers about what that 1.25% might realistically be worth? She compared the offer to her current position and (without the equity) there's a ~$55,000 difference. That's a shit…

No really, this article was total nutso. "Another thing that made this situation complicated was that Kyle and I are recently engaged" was almost at the half way point. After reading about how she had received an email from "Kyle", one of the Keen founders, to meet for coffee or beer to discuss an offer, I had to assume they were both recently engaged to other people. I finally realized that, no, in fact they are eng…

hopefully I cleared up the confusion with the intro I added to the entry.

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#109

Post by tptacek »

rdl wrote: post #97
dkador wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that if a company offers a sizable equity percentage as part of their comp it signals something negative about that company?

Yes, if the founders of a company, who have the best visibility into the company, don't value their equity, it's a waving red flag on fire. Either they are idiots (inexperienced at best, incompetent more likely), or company = doomed. Obviously offering tptacek 5% in a company isn't bad, but offering an office admin 5% is.

This person isn't an office admin. I don't know where that notion is coming from (elsewhere on the thread, I assume), but it's a little disturbing.

Re: How I negotiated my startup compensation (with numbers)

#110

Post by webjunkie »

dorkitude wrote: post #107
webjunkie wrote: post #105

I somehow can't take people serious who still think it's a good idea to use 'here' as a link text.

You might enjoy reading this. http://www.dustincurtis.com/you_should_follow_me_on_twitter....

Oh no... noooo... don't let that be true. Now I have nightmares.
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