Thank you so much for your advice! It really strikes a balance. No doubt I had a mix of positive and negative feelings about this at first but hey an opportunity is an opportunity. Thanks once again!
Maybe they didn’t have the budget to hire you, and the other guy was cheaper. Now the other guy has flaked and the CEO has taken a 10% pay cut to hire you. I have been the CEO taking the cut to stretch for a candidate before.
You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, so be classy and polite, they may be stretching for you