Hi all - I am looking for guidance to evaluate an offer ( TC yet TBD) from a fintech startup. They’re valued at around 2 Bn and have under a 1000 people at the moment. I am keeping it obfuscated on purpose - because the startup name+my firm will narrow it down severely otherwise. Currently - I am at 10-11 YoE, 450TC. Have had offers from F/A/G but stayed back since the TC was around the same and I am on a path to make to the next level here, which pays 600-1m TC and would allow me to lead a large group. Core skills are engineering management and scaling teams into large engg groups - previous experience is senior SWE experience with low latency trading platforms and owning an entire technology group that builds the trading algos as well as the exchange connectivity. What kind of number should I be looking at and what are the factors that are important in a startup offer evaluation? I’ll update with more offer details as they come by. Edit: looking at a director or Sr. Director of SWE position
NYC. SF based startup.
Stay where you are and collect 600k to 1M (including bonuses). You already know the people and will be moving up the ranks and making 50% more money will little more effort than what you are putting in today. Moving from NYC to SF, building rapport with senior leaders in the new organization, gettibg familier with the new place and culture will leave you grinding on your wheels without leaving much impact. At Morgan Stanley you know the org, the people, how to work the mgmt, and the company. Stay there in my opinion.
Thank you. That’s a reasonable way to think. Slight clarification - the position is to lead the NY office, but the company is largely SF based. Typically for people to join startups when they’re on a good track in a large company - what are the (good) drivers other than better hands-on experience, potentially pre IPO money and your belief in the product?
The other big driver is career growth. It will take me 5 years to go from leading a 5 person team to a 20 person team in bigco but that can happen in a year at a fast growing startup.
Startups that are doing well will generally give someone at your level 200-250K base and 1-1.5M equity. So, that's not a big bump in TC. Assuming the startup grows 3-4x, you'll do well. You're in finance, you can do the risk assessment and figure out if that makes sense for you.
Thank you. I believe I need to get a little bit more educated on startup comp structures. I’ve never looked at startups before, this one just kinda happened because of the mutual fit - so a bit short handed there in terms of my know how wrt comp. Guess a little googling can’t hurt. Thanks for your input.
Credit karma?
This is probably Plaid
Nice. 450 TC for 10-11 YoE in Eng is pretty good. You're defo not a quant?
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