SADSAAS

Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Startup: CEO wants to meet about my Base Pay $$

Long time lurker but new to posting here...

I was the 8th employee at this startup and took a big base pay cut (about 50%) when I jumped over (with equity being the payoff). We have now gone through our second series of private funding and we have a lot more cash than when we first started and are now at 25 employees.

Long story short, our CEO reached out and wants to talk about raising my base. It was a conversation I was going to bring up in the near future but hadn't gotten around to discussing.

I guess I'm looking for advice on how to approach this conversation... I'm not expecting a typical 5- 10% raise. Now that we are heavily funded, my expectation is that they will need to be competitive with the market which would be more of a 50 -75% raise.

My fear is that our CEO has the midset of a typical 5-10% yearly raise and I am thinking of this as getting me back to the range I was paid before making the jump.

I'm very happy with where I am at and have no plans to leave the company. In other salary negotiations, I've usually been open to walking if they don't give an agreeable raise or have already received an offer from a similar company that I want them to match.

How would y'all go about this? Should I get some other competitive offers from similar companies or will that just create bad blood?

TLDR: Took a 50% pay cut to join a start-up. I will be talking to our CEO about raising my base. Guessing we have very different expectations as to how big the raise will be.

What leverage do I have if I have no interest in leaving the company?

☁️ Software Tech

💰 Compensation

11

21 comment

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Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

If you have no interest in leaving then you have no leverage. In lieu of money, what else would you want?

CaneWolf

Politicker

2

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

If you took a 100% pay cut, you'd have a base of $0. Is that what happened?

You need to have an exit plan if this conversation goes poorly.

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

My math could be bad but I was thinking of 100% as in I made 200K base and now make 100K base.

I'm still living pretty comfortably but commissions have been limited because we are still building our brand.

I think my only leverage is that I sold our first 6 customers in the USA, and I am the primary relationship between those accounts.

CaneWolf

Politicker

2

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Ah, 50% cut. I think you have a shot at renegotiating successfully but so many tech startup CEOs are unbelievable assholes so who knows.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

2

Officer of ♥️

If you took a 100% paycut that means you are earning 0$, so a 100% increase of that would still be 0$, not sure if I'm missing a detail.

What base were you making before? If you're not willing to walk you have no leverage so yes get some counter offers and bluff it.

"I'm committed to this company but I have to pay the bills, this is what I was making before, and this is what I could get paid should I leave."

He will probably hit you with a "well we never agreed to paying you that, and I can't afford that right now" At which point you have to play hard ball or.....

Ask him to pay you in commissions what you would make in your anticipated base.

Either way you're going to have to have a decent conversation with numbers on the table.

How important is this job to you?

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

1

Account Executive

Good questions and appreciate the response....It's possible my math is wrong (I am in sales haha)! I was thinking of 100% as (to use easy numbers)...... I made 200K before, I now make 100K.

I would say I am extremely committed to the company - I really like the people I work with and the job.

The bills are being paid and I'm not going into debt by taking the role. That said I did have to change my lifestyle a bit to accommodate the pay cut... fewer dinners and nights at the bars. I've always been the friend who just would randomly grab the tab on a night out but can't do that anymore.

I'm afraid given the above that my leverage is limited and I don't want to create bad blood.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

2

Officer of ♥️

Right, makes sense. So your basic needs are being taken care of, but you joined sales for the lifestyle accommodations. You can pay the bills but are in this for the money, and the growth of it. You can mention that to anyone who deals with sales people and they will laugh in affirmation an 'of course you are'

The problem with utilizing any counter offers is it does build bad blood, I wouldn't recommend it to be honest unless you really need the money. Maybe instead mention something like 'You know I took a significant paycut and that's why we are here today, you've seen my work and you noticed we *closed x deals, did logos, did revenue, established y* I'm super proud of the work we did together, I would say I am extremely committed to the company - I really like the people I work with and the job, that being said, since we got funding and picked up momentum, it would make me feel greatly appreciated if I could have my original 200k Base back, does that sound fair to you?'

or something along those lines. Mentioning what other people make in the industry casually may help, but it may also hurt. especially if you want to keep politics clean. The last thing you want is a threatened pay raise only to get it with bad blood and they try to backfill your position with someone else in the meantime

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

Tell your CEO, I believed in this company and took a 50% pay cut to come here. Since our balance sheet looks the way it does now I’m going to need a 70% increase in order to not have to consider other opportunities.

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

2

Account Executive

Balls... I like it!

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

You’re not being unreasonable either. I’m happy here I want to stay here but my market value is 100k more than what I’m currently being paid.

E_Money

Big Shot

1

💰

I mean if you took the pay cut to get onboard with this company and want to stay/continue helping it grow, then I would say you don't have leverage because it sounds like he could say 1% and you're going to stick around.

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

1

Account Executive

Probably true...

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

What is making you have the negative assumption?

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

1

Account Executive

It's totally possible it goes smooth and we are on the same page. I am just planning for the worst-case scenario where our expectations are miles apart.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

Always money in the banana stand 🍌

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

THERE'S! ALWAYS! MONEY! IN! THE! BANANA! STAND!

thebuckhunter

Politicker

1

AE

Seek a few other offers - don't compare those salaries/OTE to your current structure, but to the marketplace. Tell your boss what other companies are willing to pay for you to join.

Hoopnip

Politicker

0

Commercial AE

Reference the market .. have backup data from Betts Recruiting & RepVue .. come with data in hand as a point of reference so it looks like you done your homework in preparation for that meeting. If they get close to your expected market rate - great!

shoesalesman

Opinionated

0

AE (Account Executive)

Keep us updated with how it goes - I am interested to see how it plays!

SADSAAS

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

Not sure of the best way to do an update on Bravado, so I'll just add it here.

Unfortunately, we were pretty far apart in our expectations going into the call (60 - 70K) difference. But the conversation was very cordial. I did come with data around my market value to show I didn't pull the numbers out of my ass.

The plan is to come together again this week... so the outcome is TBD.

BUT I did just close our largest customer to date so I may have gained some significant leverage

shoesalesman

Opinionated

0

AE (Account Executive)

Congrats!

Always an awkward turtle moment when initial expectations don't align - but I am rooting for you!

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