Question at the top so you don't have to scroll through: have you ever successfully negotiated an exit package?
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Context:
About two years ago, I helped sell a company. We knew the acquisition would be a bloodbath for external-facing teams (read: all functions that reported into me, namely sales and marketing) because the acquiring company was larger. Not great but at least it was known very early on. Set the people I managed up for success and decided I wanted to stay in start-up land longer.
Took a job as VP Sales in another start-up that shares investors with the company that just sold; had to be convinced to join for a number of different reasons.
Completely had to rebuild the entire GTM and sales function from the ground up since it was such an immature function when I joined (ex: they would preemptively give out discounts, there was no cohesive pricing structure, customer journey, or defined deal stages to give an idea of the depth of the issue.). Culture was an issue and a lot of it boiled down to first-time founder problems but I did manage to improve their growth rate from 20 to 45% for the last 1.5 years.
Now:
This week, I'm told they're letting me go because they are getting rid of the VP Sales function and folding sales under marketing and putting one of the ICs I hired in charge as a middle manager. The company is sales-led and not product-led growth. The entire team is one I've brought in; I've hired or recruited 1/3 of the company. They're mid-fundraising. I'm mid-hiring. The company is mid-a lot of things that I'm meant to help with on my way out. No notice, no PIP, nothing in writing.
The current offer/request is an ask to continue for another month by telling a very different narrative about my not being at the company, and helping transition, shape, and not blow up the above things in motion. As is standard, we are at-will but this feels perhaps abnormal. Hoping to get some data points here as I’ve never been let go before (made it 12 years!) so I’m shooting in the dark but negotiating is in my DNA.
What is normal and what has been your experience?
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