Do you have any products at all, is there is a product in the pipeline that will be finished or scrapped or is it an all out talent acquisition? How rare are yo

Do you have any products at all, is there is a product in the pipeline that will be finished or scrapped or is it an all out talent acquisition? How rare are your skills you say development and design, but is it Ruby, Java, Objective-C? To me if it is totally a talent acquisition and your company has no product and no product on the horizon then you really have nothing to lose other than income from contracting (assuming that is what you are doing). That being said and if it is the case, I would figure out what I believe that I could realistically earn annually, take out health and other perks, make sure their are some options and ask for that rate along with some up front money say a half a years salary for the risk and lost opportunity. IF you have a rare skill and are in a tight market you could ask for a years salary up front. But this is very subjective, if you have some very rare skills that they are in need of, you could be underselling yourself even at that rate.