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A couple of points: - Why do you want stock in this company? Is this "marketing agency" something that is going to scale 10-100X with the intention of having s

A couple of points: - Why do you want stock in this company? Is this "marketing agency" something that is going to scale 10-100X with the intention of having some sort of equity event [get bought or IPO] so you can make money on your equity? Is there any evidence that someone else thinks so i.e. VC and angle investors? - Like pace said, you need to be mentally prepared to leave in order to have any control in the negotiation. My personal ethos is that I want to create value and if I can't create value sufficient to justify the pay I want, I owe it to the company to train a better replacement and move on to where I'm a better fit. In your situation the compensation (re)negotiation might go something like this: (Over lunch with your manager/partner/etc) "Now that I've been working for the company a while I like where it's going and I'd like to be part of that i.e. with equity. Obviously I want to deliver value to justify that and if you don't think I can produce that value I owe it to both of us to move on so you can get someone who can." When/If the "Can't this wait until your December review?" comes up you could reply with "I think the position I'm filling is critical to the company's success and the longer I stay, the longer I'm keeping you from getting someone who is a better fit." My guess is that they will be happy to cut your pay and give you some (worthless) equity. Google "start up stock dilution".

vu0tran 15y ago
I want stock because I know the work I"m doing is adding tremendous value to the company. I also know that right now, I am underpaid. I do more than 40 hours a week and what to do more than 40 hours a week. I want that work to translate to something and ultimately, I feel that this company is in the position to take off. It was featured in Inc. 500 as one of the top startups in the industry. Here's a little more of a background with where I'm at: I was initially signed on as a contractor (startup obviously). My contract was for 9 months and there were 4 other devs there at the time including me. Within a month, one of the devs changed workplaces because he got a better offer. After that, they took the initiative to sign me on full time as a "senior level" developer for 75k. I was expecting more of a 85-90k range, however, this was the start of the summer months and the work coming in is drastically reduced. I approached the general manager anyways and pointed out that 85k-90k is where I want to be, but I am willing to be patient through summer. The feedback I got from him was that I was too "naive" the way I approached this and sounded too "greedy" and "arrogant". Big blow to my ego. I resolved that I would just work tremendously hard and prove my value otherwise. Within another 3 months, another developer left, and the technical director left as well. Due to better opportunities or they just didn't get along with the people there anymore. This leaves me in the position of doing all of their work, including the job of the Technical Director. Generating business strategy, implementing new technologies, overseeing research/development etc. I had a chat with the general manager and my boss about a week ago. This was a midyear review. They raised my salary to 80k, but didn't really talk to much about whether I'd be the new Technical Director or not, but just deferred to December. Unlike with the general manager, I have a pretty good work relationship with my boss so I gave him a call that night and asked him what's up. He told me that he was trying to push the general manager to increase my pay to 100k and push me to Technical Director right now given that my responsibilities to change. However, the general manager pushed back and said that this "wouldn't be fair" to the rest of the team as I was the only one that got a midyear review. I'm grateful of my boss. He definitely understands me. However, because he's not a technical guy (nor anyone else at the company), he doesn't understand the grasp of how much I'm doing for the company, and more importantly, how much devs should get paid. 85-100k is a great salary for a lead developer. For technical director, I would be expecting more like 110-120k... Seeing that they're struggling so much to even bring me up to 100k, I imagine the fight to get 100k + 20k in equity is going to be pretty hard. And yes, I understand what stock dilution is. A couple more details: I'm 19, I don't have a degree. My work history as been with 2 other companies, but haven't lasted more than half a year. Maybe this has a huge factor as well?
- chrisbennet 15y ago
  The sad reality is that it is very rare for a company you to pay you what you are worth if they "got a good deal" initially. You need to move to another company. It's sucks if you like where you are but that's how it is.

vu0tran 15y ago

I want stock because I know the work I"m doing is adding tremendous value to the company. I also know that right now, I am underpaid. I do more than 40 hours a week and what to do more than 40 hours a week. I want that work to translate to something and ultimately, I feel that this company is in the position to take off. It was featured in Inc. 500 as one of the top startups in the industry. Here's a little more of a background with where I'm at: I was initially signed on as a contractor (startup obviously). My contract was for 9 months and there were 4 other devs there at the time including me. Within a month, one of the devs changed workplaces because he got a better offer. After that, they took the initiative to sign me on full time as a "senior level" developer for 75k. I was expecting more of a 85-90k range, however, this was the start of the summer months and the work coming in is drastically reduced. I approached the general manager anyways and pointed out that 85k-90k is where I want to be, but I am willing to be patient through summer. The feedback I got from him was that I was too "naive" the way I approached this and sounded too "greedy" and "arrogant". Big blow to my ego. I resolved that I would just work tremendously hard and prove my value otherwise. Within another 3 months, another developer left, and the technical director left as well. Due to better opportunities or they just didn't get along with the people there anymore. This leaves me in the position of doing all of their work, including the job of the Technical Director. Generating business strategy, implementing new technologies, overseeing research/development etc. I had a chat with the general manager and my boss about a week ago. This was a midyear review. They raised my salary to 80k, but didn't really talk to much about whether I'd be the new Technical Director or not, but just deferred to December. Unlike with the general manager, I have a pretty good work relationship with my boss so I gave him a call that night and asked him what's up. He told me that he was trying to push the general manager to increase my pay to 100k and push me to Technical Director right now given that my responsibilities to change. However, the general manager pushed back and said that this "wouldn't be fair" to the rest of the team as I was the only one that got a midyear review. I'm grateful of my boss. He definitely understands me. However, because he's not a technical guy (nor anyone else at the company), he doesn't understand the grasp of how much I'm doing for the company, and more importantly, how much devs should get paid. 85-100k is a great salary for a lead developer. For technical director, I would be expecting more like 110-120k... Seeing that they're struggling so much to even bring me up to 100k, I imagine the fight to get 100k + 20k in equity is going to be pretty hard. And yes, I understand what stock dilution is. A couple more details: I'm 19, I don't have a degree. My work history as been with 2 other companies, but haven't lasted more than half a year. Maybe this has a huge factor as well?

chrisbennet 15y ago
The sad reality is that it is very rare for a company you to pay you what you are worth if they "got a good deal" initially. You need to move to another company. It's sucks if you like where you are but that's how it is.