Salary at small tech companies
Hello everyone, A friend of mine just got an offer from a small company(50 engineers) of 40 dollars an hour(80k a year). My friend has a masters degree and a year of experience. What do you think of the offer? I think they are low balling. Curious to see what blinders think. Please don’t compare the salary to faang or any big tech company. They have a product that’s decent but not great, current market value of the company is around 100 million.
Depends on options package and potential upside, but I'd ask for more. Especially if it's a vc funded tech company that they believe in. I've gotten 130k base offers from well funded startups w 1yr experience
Interesting. Was this is SF or the South Bay? This company is located in San Jose. I am guessing that changes the salary by a bit.
This was SF. I mean, it shouldn't change by much, the markets not that different. The salary is determined by what the candidate brings to the table and how much the company has to give them. Ask questions about how much runway they have, what events they could exercise options, estimate value of grants based on last evaluation, etc etc
Without more information this isn't a very useful question. Is your friend located in a city where there are no companies that pay better? You don't need to work at FAANG or be in the Bay to hit 6 figures with 1 YoE. It could very well be a reasonable offer for the local market. It might be total trash. It never* hurts to ask for more but without leverage, or at least the willingness to walk away, you may not get what you want.
Sorry, forgot to mention the city. The company is located in San Jose. They have been around for 7 years. But now they are growing at a faster pace. In Bay Area, do companies even pay 80k anymore? Seems unreasonable considering the cost of living. :/
Do they? Yes. Do they attract and keep talent? Depends on how much the employees believe in the cause. I don't think anyone with options would do it unless they were totally convinced of the upside
What do you recommend my friend ask for to start the negotiations? I told him start with 50 an hour. But even that seems low to me.
Does he get equity?
Yes but very little. They are nowhere close to ipo. So imo equity doesn’t mean shit in this case.