>what made you accept the offer on such a short notice?
I was the first hire with good equity...so I guess I was just plain greedy and not thinking straight. Or maybe it was the boredom that comes from working at a safe job in a bank...I was plain ecstatic to get back into a startup.Mostly my greed and idiocy. Am never going to be so trusting again.
Hey, it could have been worse. A friend of a friend had the rotten luck of getting hired at a company, moving across the country, and getting laid off within the first week due to the company shutting its doors, not once but on two separate occasions!
"Right now or not at all" is a showstopper. So are unreasonable time limits on offers. "48 hours to decide" is an easy "No, thank you."
If they're worried about not landing someone, having to extend multiple offers and possibly overshooting their hiring goals then they should be up-front about that. I would also worry about their hiring bar.
What made you accept the offer on such short notice? I get that startups move faster than other companies, but if someone wanted to hire me right now or not at all, I'd take it as a serious warning sign. Most likely it means they're hard-ass negotiators who are manipulating you or that they're genuine but too focused on the short term--either way, a red flag.
I got a tentative offer for my current job just as I was starting a one-year sabbatical backpacking trip through South-East Asia. They had something time sensitive they needed me for as soon as possible. Despite that, they were totally understanding, reassuring me that they still wanted to work with me whenever I was ready.