Nuro vs Scale AI vs Applied Intuition
Posting for a friend. All new grad positions Company/Industry: Nuro Title: Software Engineer Location: San Francisco / Mountain View Salary: $150k/year Stock/Recurring Bonuses: 12% annual perf bonus, 240k/4 year RSU Relocation/Signing Bonus: 40k signing (negotiated) Total Compensation: 268k first year, 228k recurring Company/Industry: Scale AI Title: Software Engineer Location: San Francisco / New York Salary: $146k/year Stock/Recurring Bonuses: 252k/4 year Options(already deducted price to buy) Relocation/Signing Bonus: 20k signing Total Compensation: 235k first year, 215k recurring Company/Industry: Applied Intuition Title: Software Engineer Location: Mountain View Salary: nda Stock/Recurring Bonuses: nda Relocation/Signing Bonus: nda Total Compensation: nda Main considerations are company growth (RSUs), internal promotion, how interesting the work is, culture and caliber of other engineers. Current Opinions I have Nuro: Boring work since return offer to the team where I interned. Risky company growth compared to other two. Slower promotion path. Very good WLB and super chill culture. Scale AI: Very strong business and growth potential. Interesting work if placed on right team. NY is a plus. Bad WLB Applied Intuition: Risk between Scale and Nuro. Smart people. nda comp. Bad Location Please let me know where im wrong or what im missing
Another thing to consider: the exercise window for the Scale ISOs. If you only get like 60 days after you leave to exercise, that can force a difficult decision. Let's say you work there for two years and then leave. You then have to decide if you want to spend $xx,xxx within 60 days of leaving on their equity. Maybe it's a no-brainer if you have confidence in them but who knows. Regardless, in a new grad position the most important thing is probably growth opportunities. Things like mentorship, challenging projects, proven record of internal promotions etc. From a money perspective, all of those jobs are gonna pay the bills and it's a crapshoot for which one's equity will end up worth the most.
Scale does 90 days if you leave after a year and 10 years if you leave after 2 years.
10 years and still ISO? I thought IRS requires that to be NSO?
Super chill culture?! Dude, climate changed
From a financial perspective I think Applied or Scale makes the most sense. Scale I think most recently raised at a pretty high valuation (so potentially less upside) and their unit economics isn’t exactly pure SaaS (labelling costs still scale with customers). Smart group of people at all 3, not great WLB at both Scale and Applied but great personal growth at both (although Scale has pretty high turnover but Applied does not). I know people at all three, would choose Applied if you care most about personal/company growth, and Scale if you care most about location (NYC is a lot more fun than SF).
Nuro is not that chill anymore lol
More insights?
Nuro had layoffs
I believe this post is a little too old to be taking that information into account.
Looks like Scale laid off 20% as well
Which team for Nuro?
rather not say for anonymity