So I'm interviewing with this stealth startup. I actually know the co-founder from high school. They have an initial $1MM seed from the co-founder, and are aiming for their first round of funding in a few months. I just started salary negotiations today and it was REALLY weird. The guy I spoke to was an advisor they hired to do the negotiations on their behalf. He was basically asking for my bottom-line. Basically how much money it would take to pay my mortgage and bills. And the equity I can expect is 0.5% on the HIGH-END. I would be employee #1, not counting the co-founders and the contractors they currently have. They're targeting a billion-dollar industry, and personally, I think the idea is a great idea. But it's VERY ambitious. It would be the equivalent of making the next Airbnb or LinkedIn level of ambition. With that said, we ended the meeting with him basically telling me to email him what my bottom-line/"walk-away" number is. After our meeting, I did some more research into startup compensation, and 0.33%-0.66% for senior engineer is the industry standard for post-series A startups. But some figures go as high as 2-3% for hire #1 and 1-2% for hires 2-5. Articles also says to double the percentage if this is pre-funding, as it'll be diluded during funding. So I basically organized all my research and laid it out in an email and sent that over to get his thoughts. I still haven't given them a number yet. I'm so lost, this process is completely different from big tech negotiations. Any advice? Current TC: 300K (Overemployed) #equity #startup
Recruiters that ask for bottom line are lazy.
Are they allowing you to be OE while working for the startup?
They don't know yet. I've been contemplating revealing that to the co-founder, and spinning it as a way to for them to possibly pay me less, but allowing me more flexibility in-case I have meeting conflicts. The co-founder that seeded $1MM is also the owner of a consulting company too, so that's kinda similar to being OE.
realistically, for the first employee should be 1.5% for someone junior and 2.5% for someone senior.
0.5% of 1 million is 50K. Do your math. It comes out to 12.5K per year.
Employee #1 should be 1-2%
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This is the sort of place where your comp gets adjusted after they raise more rounds of funding. Until then, everyone there is on bare subsistence. I've been there. Do you like the mission, trust the founders? If so, could be worth it even if you don't come out ahead financially.