I used to work in the design/development agency space and move to SaaS sales about 4 years ago. My company is post-IPO and generally have their shit together with comp plans. Like a real OTE and a path to get there and SDRs and, dare I say..marketing.
A few years back a trusted mentor and boss from my previous agency had some big dreams and went to another company. He came at me HARD with a solid OTE and title. It sounded too good to be true, but I did take him up on the offer. I went back and forth over the course of a month+ trying to nail down a comp plan that made that massive OTE attainable. And I couldn't get shit. He was building a services org inside a product company and the services and TAM hadn't been totally defined.
Ultimately, I didn't have enough trust in the company to make the move and stayed put at the SaaS company I'm at. I'm slaying here and was rep of the year yada yada. He left that company because it was a sham opportunity and agrees I made the right choice to walk away.
However, I have a terrible boss. He has never managed a team of people before, has no career pathing experience and the whole team is feeling pretty stuck. He was recently promoted to VP and has become a pain point and detractor for many of us high performers trying to forge a path forward.
So, I'm starting to put myself back on the market again and have a few decent prospects.
Enter the old boss - he's back and with a vengeance. He is now the CEO of his own agency and coming in hot with a VP title (I'm an IC where I am today) and double OTE. I'm intrigued, because as CEO he has power and he's an excellent groomer of people. But I feel a bit bitten from the last go round.
So here's the question - how seriously do you take following a mentor/friend/confidant to other companies, with trust being a huge decision factor? I see it happen all the time in sales, so I'm curious other people's experiences.
Or do I stay the course, stay on product side and try and find the next pre-IPO/acquisition target with equity.
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