4 ms·

I'm a freelance developer. The amount of money that they offered will not last me more than a week. The company is in the space of business intelligence and t

I'm a freelance developer. The amount of money that they offered will not last me more than a week. The company is in the space of business intelligence and their customers would mostly be corporate/startup owners. I'm not crazy over the idea, but it does sound viable but then again there's so many competitors in this field. The only saving grace is that I find that the CEO guy with his previous experience managing a medium-sized company may be able to use his connections to get customers. And the startup environment where I am in (Singapore) may be advantageous to him where angels and government grant givers take previous working experience before giving out cash.

TWAndrews 15y ago
BI is a pretty crowded space. Even with the connections of the CEO, he's going to be competing against established companies with significant teams of developers ranging from smallish, but quickly growing (e.g. Tableau) to monstrous (e.g. Microsoft). I'd be very reluctant to take almost nothing but equity in a BI company unless the CEO can make a very clear and convincing case for the product over the legions of competitors you'll face.
- ccitizen 15y ago
  I am not totally convinced that he knows the space well myself. I find myself trying to justify sticking with them, maybe negotiate a lower working time/commitment for the same pay (provided that they cannot afford to increase the pay) in exchange of losing this friendship and potential network. Although I still think I'd be shortchanged. Another worrying trend I feel is that while I'm probably 'employee #1', I find myself doing more architecture/design work than the technical co-founder as he is a relatively new programmer. What would be a good way to ensure that I do not burn bridges while negotiating and/or rejecting?
  - TWAndrews 15y ago
    I'd just tell them that your current financial situation doesn't enable you to work for just equity. And if you feel like you're doing more of the technical work than the technical co-founder, it's probably not a good situation overall.

TWAndrews 15y ago

BI is a pretty crowded space. Even with the connections of the CEO, he's going to be competing against established companies with significant teams of developers ranging from smallish, but quickly growing (e.g. Tableau) to monstrous (e.g. Microsoft). I'd be very reluctant to take almost nothing but equity in a BI company unless the CEO can make a very clear and convincing case for the product over the legions of competitors you'll face.

ccitizen 15y ago
I am not totally convinced that he knows the space well myself. I find myself trying to justify sticking with them, maybe negotiate a lower working time/commitment for the same pay (provided that they cannot afford to increase the pay) in exchange of losing this friendship and potential network. Although I still think I'd be shortchanged. Another worrying trend I feel is that while I'm probably 'employee #1', I find myself doing more architecture/design work than the technical co-founder as he is a relatively new programmer. What would be a good way to ensure that I do not burn bridges while negotiating and/or rejecting?
- TWAndrews 15y ago
  I'd just tell them that your current financial situation doesn't enable you to work for just equity. And if you feel like you're doing more of the technical work than the technical co-founder, it's probably not a good situation overall.