Ask HN: What should I try to negotiate? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What should I try to negotiate?

7 pointsanonymois6 comments

I am leaving my job to start a company this summer. I am building a product targeted towards the same industry that I currently work. The board of directors at my current company have found out about my plans and approached me with an offer to consider.

They would like to keep me on retainer as a strategic consultant after I've gone. My role would be focused on continuing to drive the direction of their products and help with closing sales. (This is part of my current responsibilities on top of programming.). I think this will consume between 2 and 5 days a month.

In exchange, they would pay me a monthly retainer as well as provide me with office space / conference room space if I ever need it. I would also be able to cross-sell what I'm working on with any potential sales they've got since I'd be present during that sales process.

I recognize that this is an excellent opportunity and I want to negotiate the best possible position since it will be much easier to do now than to try to revisit later.

Charging hourly for my time seems like the wrong move here. I would love to hear any "outside the box" suggestions for things I should try to negotiate. I would also especially love to hear about times that any of you have successfully pulled this off and possibly any pitfalls I should be aware of.

Thanks!

To me it sounds like a move to retain your IP under their ownership, I would at least specifically resolve that you own your own IP, and there is no non-compete clauses in anything, but IANAL. Additionally, it seems at the very least they want to be privy to your IP and/or clients, so I would perhaps get them to sign a non-compete with you ... Outside of that, I would say that it sounds more like a partnership or something, so I would think of it like that. Conceptually having your own plans dependent on another sole entity means that you should work against that to get as much outside business, at least, that would be best for your company, especially if it isn't a partnership. Again I am not a lawyer though!

I am currently not under any form of NDA or noncompete. My plans aren't dependent on them at all; but I do feel this may end up being a valuable sales channel. However, you do make a good point about having clarity regarding ownership on products going forward. That is something that I will need to resolve.

As an aside, everyone at my current company has been very supportive of this move; we are all looking at ways that this can be mutually beneficial.

A retainer generally implies a fixed fee for up to "x" amount of service time. The company risks part of their investment if they don't use all the time available on the monthly retainer. However that risk is offset by having the service provider generally available as needed.

My recommendation to you is to mentally set your hourly rate and then multiply it by the total number of hours you are willing to give them, regardless of the number of hours they want. So if you are willing to give them 5 days (40 hours) of service a month, then set your rate at that point (This should always be a fixed number, not hourly billing, so you and they know the exact cost every month and you can be prepaid).

Remember when setting your rate, odds are they will use every single hour available and if you are not getting other services, then your rate should be higher than your salaried rate was because the company is no longer having to eat all of the other “hidden expenses” and you will be taking on new taxes such as an additional 7.5% for being self employed. Consider lowering your rate for continued access to services like health insurance or retirement plans.

Decline any financial compensation related to performance, only go for a fixed fee, else you may find yourself distracted or side tracked and working extra hours that you never intended to, to achieve some financial goal or project closure. The hardest part about working retainers is actually limiting yourself to the contract requirements and no more, especially when working with people that you have real personal relationships with.

- Clarify the IP issues.

- Agree on a fixed amount for a fixed amount of time, and agree a (much higher) hourly rate for any time beyond that, ie. charge 100 - 150$/h (or 800 - 1000$/day, -ish) for the fixed amount of time, and 200 - 250$/hour for time beyond that.

- Agree that they can't just tell you "we need you tomorrow".

Sounds like an awesome deal, congrats. Make sure to get the IP and compete issues cleared out though. What if your product starts to compete with theirs?

Try to get a monthly cash retainer at a competitive consulting rate: say $1k/day (i.e. 3-4K/month).

Also, try to get a small commission on successful sales where you are involved.

Whatever you do get an IP lawyer involved to make sure you're not muddying ownership. Negotiate to have them sign whatever waivers/agreements your lawyer recommends.

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