employees, sharesI’m senior software developer in a stable IT company. I have an above average salary in our market. A friend of mine wants me to quit my job and join their startup. They’re developing some internal solution for Google. There is no contract with Google at the moment and there is no cash flow in the startup, only life savings.
The only thing they have, is a weekly conversation and demo with some Google manager.
Duration of this partnership with Google is about 1+ year.
My questions are:
I would be grateful for any advice.
Unless there is a signed contract with Google, quitting your stable job for the business is a highly risky decision.
Google has 1000 reasons for not going forward with the startup, they have money and people to do it themself.
In my experience, it’s very difficult to get a contract with Google unless your business can offer something they really don’t have. The negotiations could take years (not kidding), and still nothing ever happen.
Remember the Google manager doesn’t own the company. He might not have the power for the final decision.
If you join a startup without funding and a contract, you probably won’t get salary more than you have in your current company.
You should definitely ask for shares, and it should be significant.
Given what you’ve described, three scenarios come to mind:
The Google Manager has no management buy-in. If so, it likely means the manager is pushing a pet project forward by offloading it onto a buddy. It sometimes works - make that rarely. But note that your startup is actually taking all of the risk here. Your startup has no guarantee that they’ll get actually (Google) traction down the road. It’s a maybe sale.
The Google Manager has management buy-in. If so, we may have reached peak hubris in SV, because it means a multi-billion dollar corporation is literally outsourcing 100% of its risk, at no cost to itself, to (presumably young) startup entrepreneurs. In the normal world a multi-billion corporation would at least throw some kind of bone by providing financing.
The startup might be lying to you or to itself. Startups lying to others happens - for instance by painting a rosier picture of their financial reality to hire someone with a desired key skill set who will save the day. Startups lying to themselves about their own situation also happens - in the sense that they’re heading towards disaster but are sticking their head in the sand about their situation and not seeing the writing on the wall.
As to your specific questions:
1 - How risky is it to quit stable job and join their startup now?
Per above, very risky.
2 - How big is the probability that Google declines their project?
Per above, very big.
3 - Should I ask salary more than I have in current company?
Expect them to try to underpay you and/or offer even less than that with stock to compensate.
4 - Should I ask for a company share?
If you feel like it. But be wary that you should always treat things like stock options as a bonus. Stock becomes worthless once a company shuts down, and most startups fail.
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