Sup savages. Coming to my first 'adult' crossroads in this career of sales i've chosen for myself. Here's the summary: - 82k OTE current role (160 OTE for AE's) vs - 150k OTE startup + equity - 2500+ employees vs - 30 employees - 100+ person sales team across the US + UK vs - 3 person sales team working directly with the VP of sales to develop strategy + frameworks - 5 days in office vs - fully remote

WhirlyBird

SDR

Good Citizen

Fire Starter

Contributor

24 years old and in need of advice

Sup savages. Coming to my first 'adult' crossroads in this career of sales i've chosen for myself.

Here's the summary:

- 82k OTE current role (160 OTE for AE's)

- 150k OTE startup + equity

- 2500+ employees

- 30 employees

- 100+ person sales team across the US + UK

- 3 person sales team working directly with the VP of sales to develop strategy + frameworks

- 5 days in office

- fully remote

🧠 Advice

🎯 Career Development

🏙 Corporate Experiences

28 comments

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braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Now is not the time to jump to a 30 person startup

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

Despite them just securing a 10M Series A a month ago?

sales321go

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Do you believe in their product? Does their product have a good market fit? I agree with braintank, now is not the time to make changes unless the product is really great. And sounds like the OTE at your current company is bigger. Going to a new company will mean you will have to learn the new product, so why make yourself do extra work when you can stay at your current role (if they indeed promise AE promotion) and focus on fine-tuning you sales skills instead. I think bouncing around esp in this market is not. Good idea unless you’re getting paid substantially more and believe in the product.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Yes. The road is littered with Series A's

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

With the current state of the market I would avoid #2 like the plague, and pick a company with an established product, market fit, and customer base

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

I would avoid a small startup like that for several reasons.

1. You don't have the experience to perform well in an environment like that. Chances are you will have very few resources available, and a lot will be expected of you.

2. the economy is in the toilet. Now is when startups start losing funding from VC and go broke. 10M in series A is nothing. At best that's a few months of operating expenses.

3. You're at an early enough stage in your career that you want big names on your resume. It makes you look a lot better in the future when applying to roles if they see you have a background with some real players.

4. You don't want to get in the habit of job hopping every 6 months. it's not a good look. small startups like that tend to lead to job hopping.

If we were still in the tech boom we were in a few years ago where everything was hitting record high's, companies were blowing through money like it's water, and VC firms were more than happy to fund anything that looks like it might be cool - I would say sure take a chance on it. But with the current economic outlook there is a very real chance that company won't exist a few months from now unless they are an absurdly disruptive product to their market and a must have for businesses.

sales321go

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Couldn’t agree more with all this. I made a mistake like this before. Don’t get blinded by OTE. Learn your craft and then you can choose where you want to go.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Very well said!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Are they all AE roles?

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

3 months away from AE at my current company and that OTE is 160k, but no equity…

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

^and yes, it would be AE at the startup

JdiggityR

Executive

Enterprise Account Executive

Equity isn’t ever worth the paper the option agreement is printed on. ESPECIALLY if they are early stage. If they do well they will raise more and more diluting making the pool worthless.

Patience is a virtue for a reason. It’s not easy to have or attain.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Trust me I beg you. The startup offering you that is the most risky move you can possibly make. Is their product scalable and sellable? Are they ready to grow? They likely need to throw that much money at you because they don’t know and if it doesn’t work well sorry but thanks for your time and good luck.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

At your age and with your experience, I would opt for the bigger company name. I would avoid a no-name start up regardless of the money. Having a big company name on your resume will help you for life.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'm not sure how to read all the "vs" and where they apply, so I'm struggling to help here.

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

sorry, first line in each is my current role. and the second (beneath each ‘vs’) refers to the startup role

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I get it now, just reading it wrong. :)

One other question - new role is also SDR, or are you getting to move to AE? I'm not sure if it matters, the money is significantly better, so that is a huge factor.

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

It would be a move to AE and goddammit do i miss owning my full sales cycle from start to CLOSED WON

bandabanda

Tycoon

Senior AE Mid Market

I second Braintank and Coorsking here - I would not join a Series A even if they raised 10m. My series A raised just under that and I have serious concerns about the longevity of the product, and leadership team.

The turbulent market right now makes it an even bigger risk. I’m already seeing it- depending on who you’re selling to, prospects are starting to be conservative and sales cycles seem to be lengthening.

The companies who will last have true product market fit, a strong customer base with low churn, and leadership w/ a good vision but also fiscally responsible.

Thatsalesdude

Politicker

Account Executive

Chase the money

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

What are the OTE splits. I would care less about the variable and more of the base if I was at a startup. (well in any company really)

I Would never go back to 5 days in the office.

thats a deal breaker for me.

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

it’s a higher base at the startup ironically

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

i would actually expect that. most start ups know they need to pay more since they dont have any past history to pull good talent

countingmyinterest

Politicker

Account Executive

Big company>>>> especially when you're so young into your sales career.

My first official job (after being a founder) was for a seed stage startup with a new product. Paid slightly more than a couple other offers I had.

In hindsight, I wish I started at a big company with a proven sales team/methodology. I would've advanced my career way quicker and not squandered 6 months.

Plus today's environment... do you really want to be at a startup where they might lay you off in 6 months?

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Even if you have a good risk appetite, avoid the A startup- at least for the next 6 months till things cool down a little. I'd personally fo for the 24500 employees one. Until it's Salesforce. Then I'd go for anything.

Kmoney

Valued Contributor

Account Exec

What’s base? OTE is a made up number, never forget that.

WhirlyBird

Good Citizen

SDR

base for the startup is 90k
base for the AE role at my current is 55k

^im 1 month away from promo to AE at my current

Kmoney

Valued Contributor

Account Exec

Gunna go against the grain and say go for the start up. High base and experience? Hell yeah. That experience will land you gigs with more established company’s/Fortune 500s.

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WhirlyBird

24 years old and in need of advice

28 comments

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