How would you handle this surprise offer from a pre-IPO Series E startup? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hello everyone. I am in the very fortunately position to have interviewed and received an offer from a Series E startup about to IPO next year. During the initial phone screen, the recruiter and I tentatively agreed on a preliminary number, which I explicitly said was the minimum amount I was willing to accept, but the actual offer I received was significantly below that preliminary number.

My current position is an AGC at a F500 company in New York, and my total comp is around 320k. I like the legal team here so I am not really actively looking to move. I'm frankly quite surprised by the offer as it is lower than the preliminary number agreed in the phone screen, my current comp, and market (according to my peers who went to startups from similar prominent companies).

My heart is telling me to just walk away because frankly this offer took me by surprise and I find it insulting, but a part of me is thinking I should at least try to negotiate first. If I can leverage the wisdom of the TLS community, that would be greatly, greatly appreciated. And assuming you think I should negotiate, anything I should mention/avoid bringing up in the negotiations? Thanks in advance everyone and let me know if you need more information (I'll be checking this thread quite frequently today/tomorrow and provide additional information if needed).

[Joachim2017]

At least one reason not to take it too personally is that there can often be miscommunication between the members or teams that work on recruiting and the people you interview with. I had that happen once, where the recruiting team made me an offer that was materially different in its terms from what the folks I actually talked with (the folks who do the actual substantive work) had mentioned to me would be on the table. The two team just failed to communicate between themselves while they were each independently interfacing with me. But that, of course, bespeaks to a different organizational problem that you may want to factor into your decision as well.

[Anonymous User]

You gave them a number, they didn't meet it. If you meant it, then respond with the same number again (or whatever number you want). Worst case they say no, and you lost nothing because you're not going to accept the offer on the table anyway.

[Anonymous User]

At least one reason not to take it too personally is that there can often be miscommunication between the members or teams that work on recruiting and the people you interview with. I had that happen once, where the recruiting team made me an offer that was materially different in its terms from what the folks I actually talked with (the folks who do the actual substantive work) had mentioned to me would be on the table. The two team just failed to communicate between themselves while they were each independently interfacing with me. But that, of course, bespeaks to a different organizational problem that you may want to factor into your decision as well.

That’s a good point. In this case though, it was the same recruiter that agreed to the initial number and gave me the final number, hence my surprise.

[Anonymous User]

I wouldn't read too much into this. Assuming you're interested in the offer just get in touch w/ your main contact and explain that you're interested but the number they offered isn't matching what was discussed -- treat it like a "clearing things up" conversation nothing more.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks everyone, I'll try to negotiate and "clear things up" and see what they say. Still slightly miffed though, because if I had know what the offer would be, I would have thanked them and walked away at the phone screen stage and everyone's time would have been saved.

[TigerIsBack]

I think it would also be helpful to know the magnitude of these amounts/more details.

You're at $320k now, so was your "minimum" number you threw out there $350k or like $250k? Is the startup interesting because of the startup culture and the idea of a potential windfall via the IPO so you're willing to take a pay cut or were you trying to leverage a comp increase?

Obviously if you told them your minimum was $250k, and they offered $200k, while you're currently making $320k, that's a good reason to decline the offer, whereas if your minimum was $325k and they offered $310k, there's probably room to negotiate to a range you'd be happy with (and also get to a slight bump up in comp compared to where you are currently).

[Anonymous User]

Thanks again for all of your very helpful comments. Just to update the group and to close this out, I tried to negotiate but they were not able to go back to the initial number they promised, so I turned down the offer. Hopefully this serves as a lesson for others looking to go in house that sometimes promises made by internal recruiters cannot be trusted.