The key to all negotiations is to avoid "you vs them". Don't engage in an arguement over money, ask "what would it take for you to justify paying me the extra"?

The key to all negotiations is to avoid "you vs them". Don't engage in an arguement over money, ask "what would it take for you to justify paying me the extra"? Your partner in the negotiation (note, partner not adversery) has a whole bunch of worries NOT connected to the dollar amount: will you fit in (will he look bad if you don't), will you leave too soon, will you phone it in, will you be reliable, will you refuse $X/hr (will he look bad if you don't AND will he look bad if he pays you more than that). You're job is to find out what he is concerned about and then deal with those concerns. That allows him to pay you extra. You're working together on this. In my second job in tech I had two issues: I wanted about 10% more cash and I wanted more time off. I knew they had had issues with staff turnover. So I suggested delaying the higher pay and split it in two raises: one wasn't until I'd been there 6 months and the rest at 12 months. So I got a 20% raise, more than I actually wanted, just by dealing with their bigger concern. I got the raises in writing of course. For your case, what do you need to do to be worth the extra $/h? Presumably the CTO wants you to reach certain milestones so ask them to be specific, and tie things to that. Maybe if you had qualification Y he would feel happier justifying the higher rate. So if the company pays half you could do that in your spare time right? The added advantage of this is that it makes it really hard to say no. He sees you as a reasonable person, willing to work with him, able to give as well as take etc. He doesn't want to look petty or uncooperative in front of whoever else is involved. So he will also make offers. Don't expect to get everything you want or to get it immediately. You won't. But also remember you will regret not at least asking. There are a bunch of "tricks" (really just tips eg "don't name a number first") you should Google but the overall mindset is much more important.