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Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by notagreatdeal on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @05:59PM (#13815)
More details:

engineer number 6, employee number 8. joined pre-series A

salary: 75K, .5% of the company, location: bay area

engineers 1-5 have lower salary, but 3-10% of company

recent (useless, IMO) VP hires are making six figures with a larger % of the company. they joined after raising series A.

Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by lindsayrgwatt on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:37PM (#13838)
Two thoughts for you: 1) What do you want - and more importantly: why do you deserve it? If you can't justify why you deserve more than a VP like that, then you can't justify it (Most powerful words in a negotiation are "where is that number coming from?")

2) What is your BATNA? That's jargon for "Best Alternative for a Negotiated Agreement": if you don't get what you want what will you do? Will you walk away? Is your company f!cked if you walk away?

Hopefully this can frame your thinking.

Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by lindsayrgwatt on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @08:19PM (#13889)
Dude,

Here's another way you might be able to justify a re-negotiation.

Think of what value your company will have five years from now if it gets sold/goes public, etc. Let's say it's $100M; your options are worth $500K.

Now think of how much you'd be making if you weren't at a startup. Let's say it's $95K.

If you took your $20K and put it in the stock market and earned 7% a year on it (that's almost a sure thing as that's the historical yield on the market), you'd have $115K.

Now how likely is it that your startup is going to be worth $100M. Let's say it's 20%. Then your $500K is worth 0.2500= $100K.

From that perspective you'd be better off working somewhere else under your current employment contract.

I have no idea if these numbers are legitimate in your case, but it could be another way of you getting a better deal.

Let me know if you want any more ideas.

Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by patryn20 on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:36PM (#13836)
Seriously? People make that little at these startups? I understand making that little pre-funding, but you would expect to be paid in sync with the cost of living in those areas after the company has been funded.

You can't even rent an apartment on that out there, can you? Unless you have a roommate.

I am not saying I expected too much more, but thought at least $90k for anyone with any degree of talent would be reasonable.

I mean, crap, $90k would still be WELL below median income for experienced software engineers in Silicon Valley, wouldn't it? Salary.com seems to indicate it would, but that could be a biased source.

Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by staunch on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @10:00PM (#13930)
I think the biggest question is how much does the company need you. If it wouldn't hurt much to lose you, you don't have much room to negotiate and pretty much have to rely on generosity.

Re:I'm getting a bad deal at my startup - how do I renegotia... by omouse on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @06:36PM (#13837)
Who hired the VPs and why? Do the other employees feel they're useless?