Niantic or stay at Dbx

Dropbox
yzYQ48

Go to company page Dropbox

yzYQ48
Mar 23, 2021 22 Comments

I have a T6 offer at Niantic (platform team). And I’m torn.
I was excited about the role and its growth but then they announced to me that they hired a director to whom I will report to. I am less thrilled by that since I was told initially that I would come in and build that function.
I got extremely disappointed and initially decided to drop it. Out of curiosity though I asked for the offer, and got it.
It’s pretty good on the equity front, but a Over 50k base salary cut.
Of course equity doesn’t mean anything yet. But it’s stock options at the moment.
They also gave me a strict 1 week to make a decision.

On the other hand, I have a pretty decent job at dropbox but I’m kinda bored and worried about the future of the company.

I am also well advanced with other companies for interviews (startups) but I won’t be ready to have offers before Niantic deadline comes.

12 yoe

| dbx | Niantic
Base | 235 | 200
Bonus | 25% | 20%
Sign on| | 40k

EDIT:
Niantic Options offer is: 45000 options at 11.77$

Anyone has advice on how to make such a decision?
Happy to give more details in private also.
If anyone is at Niantic, I’d appreciate some extra info 😊

#tech #offer

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TOP 22 Comments
  • Niantic
    yogaball

    Go to company page Niantic

    yogaball
    Not in engineering, but in general would say Niantic has really bad leadership problems. The buck stops with no one.
    Mar 24, 2021 4
  • Niantic
    aLUH46

    Go to company page Niantic

    aLUH46
    Despite the leadership problems, I think Niantic still has potential.
    It's current valuation is only 4B despite it makes 1B+ year revenue. They have a stockpile of cash. If it pops, it will pop in really big way because just looking at the revenues. Then the real problem is that the market looks at the growth primarily not the revenue. If niantic proves it grows from not Pokemon Go, it will drive the valuation out of the roof.

    Where does the growth come from? The company is putting a lot energy building a platform but honestly it's not really working. I doubt if that small vision team would ever compete the big players. The other area is the new games. They recently announced Pikmin and IMO it has a good potential. I've been playing and it's not re-skin of PGO.

    If it reaches say only 20% of the PGO users that will bring a significant momentum because it proves that Niantic games create a different market category. So probably later this year we'll see if it grows or PGO is the end game.
    Mar 25, 2021 3
    • Niantic
      aLUH46

      Go to company page Niantic

      aLUH46
      If it makes uncomfortable, then probably not a good idea to jump the ship.

      Just one thing: even though Niantic has the management problem, it is one of the most ethnical companies. They care about their employees a lot. If you join and doesn't like the role, they will listen and try to fix it. They won't manage you out. If you are interested, you should ask talking to your hiring manager.

      I've worked at Niantic for 4 years. The other pattern I noticed is people who genuinely like Niantic games tend to stay longer. The people who care less about the product but more on the career advancement or pure technology often leave within 2 years (not that they are wrong, it's just observation). So one good test could be whether you like playing any Niantic games.
      Mar 26, 2021
    • alUH46 would you mind sharing more on comparison with big players?
      Apr 18, 2021
  • Niantic
    giKz733

    Go to company page Niantic

    giKz733
    As the reviews and as fellow niantic commented, terrible leadership. Head of AR recently left just after 3 months. Lots of talented females leaving too.
    Mar 25, 2021 0
  • Zulily
    theceo

    Go to company page Zulily

    theceo
    Can you add the RSUs into the details too? Otherwise it doesn't seem much of a difference that's worth going for something that you're not thrilled about.
    Mar 24, 2021 2
    • Dropbox
      yzYQ48

      Go to company page Dropbox

      yzYQ48
      OP
      Not sure how I missed this!
      I added it

      Niantic Options offer is: 45000 options (not RSU) at 11.77$

      Which means depending on the valuation it can go up a lot. But it is hard to explain it seems.
      These aren’t RSU so it’s not that straightforward
      Mar 24, 2021
    • Niantic
      aLUH46

      Go to company page Niantic

      aLUH46
      I think the base can go up especially if you're in bay. Even for Seatlte, you can ask more. Niantic is generous on their annual bonus (likely > 25% for meeting the expectation).

      The option is not very exciting. I think it's around $700K worth based on the latest round. Maybe there's a room to go more if you nailed the interview.
      Mar 25, 2021
  • Niantic
    yogaball

    Go to company page Niantic

    yogaball
    Lmao, that’s cause Nintendo knows how to makes games and have good company values and culture. Niantic is piggybacking on that- you really think Niantic would be where it’s at with ingress 😂

    Smart move here would be let Tokyo studio take over the whole damn thing and forget trying to compete in ar and stick to a game partnership with Nintendo.
    Mar 25, 2021 3
    • Sony
      rngr

      Go to company page Sony

      rngr
      Can you guys tell me abit more about the Tokyo studio? I just got an offer from there. I’ve been reading negative reviews of the company in general but what does the Tokyo team look like?
      Mar 26, 2021
    • Niantic
      sleepie

      Go to company page Niantic

      sleepie
      Tokyo studio feels like an actual startup, since we're still at about 50 people. Coworkers all super nice and talented, unlike some other teams in Niantic. Direction is kind of messy, since we're still trying to figure out how to make the game "fun" with the intention of launching this year. But the fact that we actually care about fun is a step up from other teams.

      I personally would not leave Tokyo studio unless I was offered a ton more TC at another reputable company, but Niantic pays pretty well for local market rate. For a job where you make games in Tokyo, this is probably the best you'll get.
      Aug 13, 2021