Waymo L4 Base 170k bonus 15% rsu $300k signon 30k Aurora Base 205k bonus 12.5% rsu $600k signon 30k TC: 270k YoE: 6
Are you part of the Uber + Aurora deal? If so, by joining Aurora you can still get another year of Uber stock right?
I am not part of the acquisition. So won’t have the 1yr Uber stock’s
Waymo is guaranteed to IPO some day so potential seems higher.
Why guaranteed to IPO?
Did you try to ask Waymo to match your Aurora numbers? I am sure they can do something if not a 100% match. Source: I recently did a large TC match by showing Waymo competing offers.
Waymo base feels like a low-ball. Try negotiating. Ultimately it's the choice between a safer late stage "startup" vs an earlier stage startup with higher risk, higher reward. Work wise, more opportunity at Aurora to explore and do some more foundational work. On the other hand, Waymo may let you be focus on a particular piece and go really deep. I have friends in both places that enjoy it.
What valuation is being used in computing that "$600k" of Aurora RSUs? Waymo makes a big deal that they use 409a valuation when quoting equity values, while most other companies use "preferred" pricing. Make sure you're doing an Apples-to-Apples comparison. In case you don't know the difference: 409a is the "fair market value" while the preferred price is what external investors most recently paid for equity. It's often 2-5 times higher. Alphabet/Waymo also has many hidden perks that you might not be including in your TC. For example, Waymo will throw in $9500 of 401k match, some $$ for your health savings account, has the best 401k retirement plans including automated double-backdoor post-tax Roth IRA, etc etc. All that said, in the same situation I chose Aurora, for the opportunity to have more impact, see more upside potential, etc. Also, I agree with the other posters - Waymo will likely match the Aurora offer, or at least get partway there, if you ask.
What's a double back door Roth? Same as mega backdoor Roth?
Thanks for your detailed answer. I know waymo’s amazing benefits just like google. And more stable. The aurora’s value is based on post Uber atg acquisition. And their last 409a was in 2019, and half of its current price. But I don’t know which company have the better opportunities. As waymo only gives L4, not sure how many more years I can grow to next level. And based on L4 level, maybe the offer money probably is decent. For Aurora, it doesn’t have the as good infra as waymo, and less av data, so it needs longer time to catch current waymo. For personal growth, waymo could also be great, as like other folks mention, relatively mature startup, can allow you to bypass some pains from early stage and focus on a field and go deeper. Aurora could probably let you work on more things, but with the atg integrated, not sure if this is still the case, and concerned about the reorgs.
Self driving car is still unsolved and a lot of the challenges are research problems. It isn’t like traditional tech companies (for example, Uber vs Lyft, Facebook vs Snapchat, or Doordash vs UberEats) where all the involved tech is mature and it’s mostly engineering work. Joining a leading company can also mean you will have access to the best techs that ever exist in this domain, and work with the top talents in this business, I.e. a huge learning experience that may not exist in other places.
I doubt if Waymo has the best techs based on my conversation with them. In contrast, Cruise seems to have a clear mind in terms of technology based on my conversation with them.
I agree. I am not sure though why Cruise has such a negative review in Blind.
After reading Cruise reviews they may be ahead in tech but they work you into the ground. Apparently they're not great to work for, at least for software engineers. It's one reason I decided not to interview there.
Never heard of Aurora but that pay difference is substantial
The rsu is all paper money. So you’ll never know.
Now we know