Ask HN: A Business Guy Getting Hired at a Startup, Help Please | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: A Business Guy Getting Hired at a Startup, Help Please

5 pointsespadagroup13 comments

Hi Hacker News,

I am a senior in college and am a business guy into all things tech and I have been offered a job right out of college to work for a hot startup in the online music space. I have been interning there since October so they know that they want me to stay and have asked me to give them a salary amount they would need to match to keep me. At the startup there's basically just the programmers and the customer service representatives, and to the best of my knowledge the reps make somewhere in the mid to low 30K's and I'm just guessing that the programmers make between 70k to 120k. They've also offered stock options though I'm not as interested in that and would rather take a higher salary.

Any suggestions?

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What did you do as an intern? If it was related to business development or sales, you should expect to make something in the 45K-60K range.

Possibly. Really depends on how this company structures their compensation relative to goals, milestones and role description.

If sales, how's commission structured? Is it more base than commission?

To to the OP, I'd really ask them what you'd be doing as "the business guy" because if you throw out the first number without having a clear idea of what typical comp is for a role like yours, you're not bargaining well or positioning yourself for a better turnout.

This seems to be the most reasonable to me. Likely more towards the lower end.

Despite the business the company is in, seems like real-world salaries apply to the other positions.

Given the recent acquisition prices for 'hot music startups' (Lala, iMeem, etc.), I'd personally go for a higher salary.

> They've also offered stock options though I'm not as interested in that and would rather take a higher salary.

Why?

Yes, cash is something that you can spend now, but stock costs them less, so you might be able to get more NPV by loading up on stock.

Also, suppose that they brought in another intern (or two) with the difference between what you'd like and what you can live on. What would that do to the value of your stock? (John Elway diverted part of his salary to linemen. That was an investment in his career and health.)

You could negotiate a steady increase in pay, so your income grows as you change your lifestyle.

BTW - since you've been working there for a while, the cliff for vesting should be significantly less than it would be for a new hire.

I've just heard a lot about stock options for employees and seen the math for it and how it really isn't a path to being rich and isn't that lucrative for a normal exit over so many years. I'd just rather not sacrifice salary at this point of my life for that.

> I've just heard a lot about stock options for employees and seen the math for it

In other words, you haven't done the calculation for this circumstance. You're early enough that "the math" that you've seen may not apply.

You're not going to get rich from salary either, so the fact that stock options won't necessarily make you rich doesn't mean that they're a bad idea.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions, that gives me a solid range. I am not in sales so there is no commission. I do solely business development and marketing.

Update: Just in case anyone is wondering or will wonder in the future/be in my position, I ended up asking for $49,000.

What city is the company in? More metro = higher cost of living.

It's not a metro place, the cost of living is pretty low actually.

In that case, if you can pay bills and live comfortably on whatever they offer, I'd say that experience > $$ earned.

depending on where you live i would say 40-60 would be good for a new graduate. remember, at this point in your story you want experience over money.

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