42Floors (YC W12) Announces $5 Million Series A… Sorta | Hacker News Reader

42Floors (YC W12) Announces $5 Million Series A… Sorta

pandodaily.com

38 pointsjaf12duke22 comments

"I reached out to co-founder Jason Freedman who said that the company is not ready to disclose additional details about the funding round. That being the case, he (or likely an underling) would have been better off not posting it on the the tech world’s version of the water cooler."

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Well.. I think adding the "(unannounced) Series A" to a job posting wasn't that stupid after all. On the contrary, they just got free coverage from PandoDaily. Probably when they officially announce their Series A in a few weeks they'll get press again. Jason Freedman is a pretty smart guy and I've been following his (old) blog (humbledMBA) for a long time. I would be very surprised if this was mistakenly added to the job posting. :)

Thanks Phillip--appreciate the nice words. I wish it was more calculated than it was. We've been mum about our financing because, well, it's just not necessary to talk about it yet. We like to talk about financing only in conjunction with product launches. That's why we're here anyways--to make something people want--the funding is just one part of that goal.

However, a big part of recruiting is showing some likelihood of having a big impact on the world and cash in the bank can often play a large role in a prospective employee's mind. So, we released our amount but not the investors (I had promised TechCrunch that I would call them first with investor names). A similar comment had been on our jobs page for months already with no one writing about it.

I was hoping that the lack of investor names would hold off a story for now.

PandoDaily contacted me almost instantly. I told them I'd prefer to wait on a story, but I fully understood their right and obligation to publish. The guys at PandoDaily are first class. I'll continue to work with them on future stories because they're good journalists that still took the time to talk through the situation with me.

Either way, it's out. Back to work...

Story submitted (and tweeted) by a 42Floors co-founder? The plot thickens...

No real plot. Once the story has been written and published, we certainly want it read by the largest possible audience.

As an aside, I also sent a copy to my mom. I had to explain very clearly that this doesn't mean I get $5M. Oh Mom...

There should be a FAQ for parents of founders.

There's no such thing as bad publicity!

This unique angle may give the story legs. Congrats in any case.

When I read (unannounced) in the job posting, I was just counting the minutes..

Curious to know if this was intentional, but probably isn't as you can pretty much get anyone to cover a $5M Series A on your terms..

The real question is, will it affect our recruiting effort. If we find someone to join up that tells me they found out about us because of the story, I'll call it 100% successful.

Here's hoping they flock to TheSquareFoot instead! I'm a bit biased towards the H-town startup, but perhaps the real estate market is large enough that I can just root for both of you. :)

Totally. We root for them all the time. Startups should always root for other startups. Why the hell not? We're not going to lose to each other (most likely). It's the back button and ineptitude that always does startups in. So, while we both have a fighting shot, I'll support them in every way I can.

From the job posting:

"Salary is $100k+ (you'll pick the actual number)"

Is this a 'can you think like a founder' test?

No not all. The original founders all have sub-$100k salaries but also have more than 1% equity.

I don't like having salary negotiations with people that could work anywhere or could start their own company. I'm humbled and honored by their decision to work with us (that decision always comes before we talk salary).

I show them the cap table, the bank accounts, and everyone else's salary in our company...and then ask them where they would like to be.

We can't do it this way forever, but for now, it means that everyone in the company feels good about where they stand. In talking to my other startup friends, our salaries are very similar to their's, so it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the outcome.

Your job posting is definitely one of the best I've seen. The focus on health as part of the culture is an incredible perk, and the transparency offered here definitely helps. If I weren't strongly committed I'd definitely apply ;)

Man, we love it. We're addicted to feeling good. 1 year ago, we were overweight geeks, blaming a stressful startup life for our unhealthiness. Now we're all in fabulous shape and because everyone's on board more or less, it doesn't take nearly as much individual discipline.

So yeah, mega perk.

Showing them "everyone else's salary in our company" is a pretty strong approach. How well has this worked out? Curious.

(Note: founders should still keep total comp #s fair for everyone, but there's a difference between that and revealing everyone's salary)

It's not the normal way, but it's worked out just fine for us. We've all run our own startups before and we've all been burned before in one way or another. Building trust with each other is paramount.

Right now is one of the toughest talent wars I've ever seen. We've brought together 9 people all capable of running their own companies--you can't do that by doing everything the normal way.

But aside from all that, it just feels right to us.

From what I hear/read, open discussion of salaries/income is not very rare in other countries (outside the USA). I think this open discussion only benefits the employee and should be more commonplace.

I think you are going to attract some very smart people just with that level of honesty.

"At this stage, 42Floors only serves the Bay Area, but Freedman tells me that the New York City launch is just over month out, likely followed by other technology hubs around the world like Cambridge, Boston, and Seattle."

Funny definition of world. Regardless, congratulations!

If you guys ever think about são paulo I would love to help.

Oh man. Can't wait.

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