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Golden Handcuffs

avc.com

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Re: Golden Handcuffs

#31

Post by oogabooga123 »

sokoloff wrote: post #15
ProAm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always ask for a non-diluatable percentage early on.

It’s reasonable to ask “what percentage does this represent on a fully-diluted basis?” It is entirely unreasonable to ask for a percentage of the company which can never be diluted by a future fund-raising round. Doing so just telegraphs that you don’t know how venture funding/corporate finance works.

I’ve scored deals that can’t be diluted for X years after liquidity event, so employees should be able to as well. Don’t put people down with “you must not know what you’re talking about”.

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#32

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #2

Coinbase is an interesting company. They're grossly underrated and laughed off as an online casino, but they invest all that money they make very wisely and strategically to grow the business. I find another paragraph from that press release interesting: > Traditionally people expect they need to negotiate for the best package after being hired in a new job. Those that do this well tend to be rewarded, and those that…

I’ve been told before by recruiters that they don’t negotiate and that policy suddenly disappeared the moment I said “no, my other offers are higher.”

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#33

Post by tourist_on_road »

I sense greed on part of coinbase. If coinbase doesn't want to have 4 year vest schedule which makes up a significant portion of salary, Why don't they follow what netflix is doing and just give out salary as full base salary instead of any RSUs.

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#34

Post by logicslave »

nineplay wrote: post #23

I've talked to two FAANG-level recruiters recently about remote openings, which are all the rage now. One was willing to give a base-salary range but absolutely refused to provide any comp information beyond that. Signing bonus? Equity? "We are still working out those numbers for remote employees, we'll negotiate when we give you an offer" The other - everyone at the same level at the same location gets the same comp…

I mean you can just go on levels.fyi and see the comp for yourself. Recently FB has been giving ~350k for a senior developer working remote. Thats great money for someone in the mid west. Studying a few months for a job that could set you up financially for a long time is a great deal.

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#35

Post by jandrewrogers »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #2

Coinbase is an interesting company. They're grossly underrated and laughed off as an online casino, but they invest all that money they make very wisely and strategically to grow the business. I find another paragraph from that press release interesting: > Traditionally people expect they need to negotiate for the best package after being hired in a new job. Those that do this well tend to be rewarded, and those that…

In my experience, when salary is narrowly banded such that there is little negotiation within the band for a position, people negotiate position as a proxy for salary. It produces the same net result in a more convoluted and opaque way. I've seen this pattern in several places. You see patterns in companies where new hires are consistently more senior than existing employees, largely because compensation has not kept up with the market rate.

This creates some perverse incentives. I've worked at large companies where when compensation didn't fit an existing standardized value, they would literally create a "new position type" in the HR system for that hire that not coincidentally matched that hire's salary requirement. This caused a weird proliferation of titles that had little semantic relationship to the overall organization. At one company, they had 1,000 roles in the HR system for this reason, that at any sensible company could have been reduced to fewer than 100.

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#37

Post by nineplay »

hinkley wrote: post #28
nineplay wrote: post #23

I've talked to two FAANG-level recruiters recently about remote openings, which are all the rage now. One was willing to give a base-salary range but absolutely refused to provide any comp information beyond that. Signing bonus? Equity? "We are still working out those numbers for remote employees, we'll negotiate when we give you an offer" The other - everyone at the same level at the same location gets the same comp…

> we'll work it out when [we] give you an offer Maybe I'm a cynic, or I've read too many books with a powerful cabal that lies while telling the truth. But one interpretation of these words is that you are going to be a test subject in that 'work it out' activity.

I wouldn't be surprised after all the hemming and hawing about how they don't have remote compensation numbers in place. "How much less can we pay people who don't live in SV? Let's bring a bunch of chumps in and low-ball them to find out."

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#38

Post by azinman2 »

oogabooga123 wrote: post #31
sokoloff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s reasonable to ask “what percentage does this represent on a fully-diluted basis?” It is entirely unreasonable to ask for a percentage of the company which can never be diluted by a future fund-raising round. Doing so just telegraphs that you don’t know how venture funding/corporate finance works.

I’ve scored deals that can’t be diluted for X years after liquidity event, so employees should be able to as well. Don’t put people down with “you must not know what you’re talking about”.

You’d have to be one hell of a hire to convince anyone to agree to something that will complicate all finance rounds going forward. I cannot imagine the average employee could get away with this.

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#39

Post by lostdog »

Both this VC's post and coinbase's post ignore the 90-day exercise window on stock options, so they're getting rid of the "golden" but keeping the "handcuffs."

Re: Golden Handcuffs

#40

Post by nineplay »

logicslave wrote: post #34
nineplay wrote: post #23

I've talked to two FAANG-level recruiters recently about remote openings, which are all the rage now. One was willing to give a base-salary range but absolutely refused to provide any comp information beyond that. Signing bonus? Equity? "We are still working out those numbers for remote employees, we'll negotiate when we give you an offer" The other - everyone at the same level at the same location gets the same comp…

I mean you can just go on levels.fyi and see the comp for yourself. Recently FB has been giving ~350k for a senior developer working remote. Thats great money for someone in the mid west. Studying a few months for a job that could set you up financially for a long time is a great deal.

Call me cynical, but they are supposed to be trying to recruit me. I say "That doesn't sound like more than I currently make, what about other forms of compensation?" If they say "well we're not sure...", I'm going to be pretty reluctant to jump in. For all I know they are "re-leveling" and those 400k paydays are going away.
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