It's clear this company is being bankrolled by an existing company, and as far as we can tell he's a recent grad, junior programmer who did an architect degree first. They had the idea, 1.5 years of work done already and money before he came.
They're not in a high risk position and that they're offering him anything at all is actually surprising.
The problem is that experienced people cost a lot of money, and since they are typically older with things like a family to support, mortgage to pay, etc, are going to be more risk averse.
Especially in the early stages, all projects are more or less a crapshoot, so in order to tempt someone away from that 200k a year job, you're going to need to hand over a lot of equity, raise a lot of money, or overpower them with sheer force of charisma.
If you want to hire five of these people, you better be heavily bankrolled, or rolling natural 20s.
I'd be sympathetic to that pitch if it was a one-person passion project, and the increase was from $5 to $10, but a whole company going up that much? No.
Maybe, but I doubt it. First off we know exactly four things for sure:
1. It's a 30 person shop
2. Author makes 3x the juniors
3. The juniors don't think author is worth 3x them
4. the HR person was a bad hire
Dollars to donuts this is a very poorly run company (each of 2-4 essentially prove so alone, so they definitely point that way in combination).
Let's assume developers (cause I'm not qualified to talk anything else). Let's assume the 50/150 since 150 I'd estimate is about market for a senior dev at least in CA at that size shop. Juniors are more like 70k (or more? I may be a bit out of touch), so 50k is 40% short.
The chances that the junior folks are paid well short of market with great equity and the senior hire is market with little equity? Yeaaaah.
Honestly in my experience it's more likely that everyone at this company is fucked for equity, and everyone that didn't know better was fucked for salary also.
What was the cost to himself? He clearly has the experience to obtain a similarly compensated job, and if the post achieved what would be its 'virtuous' goal of large exposure, it would be done so on a short timeline no less (a recruiter from Microsoft has already reached out).
Personally I feel a mix of eagerness and skepticism. Just to rule out the bait-and-switch, this is $500k to write code? Not to travel half the time and bring in more sales? They say they want "React/Redux specialists, Unity developers, data scientists, and data engineers (proficient with TensorFlow), technical project managers (who used to do the above, but have evolved into managers), and technical account executives." The hero image is just some React.
If this is for real, I'm willing to apply. I've built web-based software for clients for 17 years. I can handle the tech, but also lead a team, manage a project, design products and features, learn a customer's problems and advise them, and offer creative solutions that bring massive value and savings. I'm a great fit for a consulting company. I do pretty well right now working for myself, but $500k would still be a big bump up. So I'm looking for the call-to-action, and it is . . . "Subscribe to the newsletter." Really? Who is this article for anyway? It is just one executive commiserating to others? It definitely doesn't seem to show ShellyPalmer in their best light: I don't see any solutions, just complaining and excuses. They are advertising their inability to hire the best people?
Offer me $500k to solve technical problems (and not leave Oregon), and I'll apply. But I can't even find a Careers page. I guess they feel I should have to work for it. That's fine, I'll tweet at you if you want, but in that case I'd like to see some proof first that this offer is for real.
>"We are looking for people who can create new value and think about businesses from scratch, not consultants and those who worked at big corporations," Yanai said. "Geniuses who are more capable than me. If the pool is bountiful, we'll take 100 or even 200."
I think it's the "mid-career" that's misleading here. They're really looking for the top, actual world-class talent with those potential salaries. In which case they aren't so insane.
If they make 50k and he makes 150k and they are all paid under market but have stock in the early stage company, this could make sense. Especially if the guy has tons of experience. (And obviously, this could be true at 60k/180k or 70k/210k, just depending.)
I think they are pretty open about what they can afford to pay. If you have self selected to be worth $2000 a day due to expertise or necessity, then you know that you're not a good fit for them.
However many people are willing to put in the work, so why are you so critical of their program.
Do you think they are taking advantage of people who should charge more? Or do you think they will not get anyone good for such a low rate, and thus fool themselves into thinking they are secure?
You forgot eg the person I just met, the "willing to pay $75k/year [proposed pay cut] to build my idea but only share in a tiny percent of the upside".
it's worth noting, the only 2 companies that paid out were willing to take the next hiring step with him. In the grand scheme of things, paying out a couple thousand is nothing compared to how much those companies will pay out to the recruiters, so it makes sense if they want to hire the guy. i mean they already spent 50k or so on the recruiter, what's another 1-5k for an assignment.
He could pay the same rates as deceptive web advertising companies and use a lottery system to give out the jobs (which have heavy demand at that salary and job-satisfaction level).
Or he could hire 1.5X as many people at the lower rates that they will gladly accept and get to space faster.
Point taken, but with the given numbers it wouldn't actually be that bad. If you interview thousands of candidates, then paying an amortized $100 per candidate is not too much. If that is what it costs to give people a good impression of your company, it might well be worth it.
This guy has credentials from a previous startup, hence why an article like this might create excitement for some.
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