Stay at startup or join Google?
I recently got an offer from Google Zürich (L3, TC: 168k chf). Currently i work at a startup with ~20 employees based in the capital of a small middle-european country. My current salary is 1/5th of the Google offer's base, but i own 0.3% of the shares of my current company (Valuated around 10M EUR for Series-A). As i talked with my boss about the Google offer, he made a counteroffer with a 65% salary bump and another 0.7% of the shares over 3 years. Also, there is an option for leading a small team of 2-3 people in the next year. The company grew in revenue 3x for 3 years and the planned exit is after reaching 100M valuation. Should i take the risk of staying with the startup for a potential high exit or take the Google badge but on a new-grad level?
google. your startup isn’t even a huge pile of paper money, a very small one indeed.
At $100M, you will make $1M? Move to Google.
Only you can make this decision. Each person has a different risk tolerance and different circumstances. You are the only one with skin in the game, so you must decide what you value more. I’ve done both. Made more on average at my startup than at Google from acquisition. But there is so much luck and randomness in a successful startup exit. The chance of exit is slim, and you basically must stay employed there until they are acquired/IPO if they ever do. You can buy your vested options if you leave, but how much are you willing to pay upfront for a volatile stock that’s not openly traded? Most employees make no money from their options. Felt like I learned more at the startup. But at G, you learn different things. For me, I get to learn how to properly build scalable products. It’s much less stressful in my experience. But at times I do feel the impact isn’t as critical. All things to consider. I hope you find what makes you happy.
Google. You can spend some time there and go to great startup with much better odds of going public.
I’d weigh the experience you’d get staying against your strengths and career goals. Will it be worth it toward building your career? Will Google provide this same new type of experience? Secondly, if work/life balance is a priority, make sure you’re clear on any potential roadblocks to this from any option you’re looking at.
Google offer is for entry level, if you have more than 5 years of experience, ask at least for L4 . I wonder why Google is low-balling people ?
They lowball everybody. Why would they give op 10x salary when 5X is enough.
Google hands down. Even at 100M that is not that much money. Also consider your Google tc will increase at 10-15% per year
No brainer: Google. If you consider this move outcome 1000 times, 999 times would be preferable to have joined Google.
Google.
What’s the chance of high exit? Probably <10%? New grad offer is 5X your current TC. What are you smoking?
Cost of living in Zürich is around 3-5x times more than in my current city.