Great essay. I'm at an earlier stage than PG's target audience for this -- still bootstrapping but experiencing 20-30% month/month growth and getting ready to go that next step (probably seed).
At this stage I've gotten what after reading this essay sounds like the baby brother of this: the oddly aggressive hire attempt. These companies have been not necessarily direct competitors but people in related spaces who might want to add what I'm doing to their tech portfolio or use its techniques in their products.
The interactions have been quite different from any other "job interview" I've ever had. I've said no three times so far to some version of: "your project is awesome," followed by some interesting discussion, followed by a hiring offer. The hiring offers have been decent but not outstanding, and they've included nothing for the project -- no "acquisition" to go with the hire. When I bring this up, the response is that my baby isn't "worth very much on its own," etc. In one case the response was oddly condescending even in its wording, which was discouraging until I went and read all the users raving about my stuff and then looked at my rather nice looking metrics again. In another case it was explained to me that while my product was interesting, I obviously wasn't... "business" enough? That's not how they put it but that was kind of the implication. I interpreted it as "you're not coming off as alpha male enough to run a business" or some version of that.
In retrospect I saw these as negotiating tactics to shake my confidence in moving forward myself. These folks are trying to get me plus a lot (3 years) of code, users, and momentum without actually paying anything for the latter two things. Looks a lot like the kind of hardball PG is talking about-- I assume "corp dev" offers come in when you're at a bit of a later stage.
Now I've got another one in the pipeline. I've decided the best way to deal with them is to go ahead and chat but otherwise to change nothing about what I am doing, to not spend much time on them, and to constantly remind myself that I am the one interviewing them and deciding whether to accept their offer. At this point given the metrics I'm seeing, the offer would have to be very good.
I'd say that the advice in this essay is probably good advice. If you do have the internal discipline/experience to put these sorts of things in a "maybe but probably not" folder, it might not hurt to chat about it with them, but if you have any doubt or if you're too busy just say no and move on. If my current discussion turns out like the previous ones I will probably do the same moving forward.
I experienced the same thing when I was at the pre-seed stage.
I got an email from an exec at our competitor trying to hire me. I figured I'd grab dinner with them to see what they had to say, and they ended up being completely transparent with their business and sales strategy, competitive advantage, their opinion on our other competitors, etc. All while I reciprocated very little information about my business.
The cost was a few days of distraction, but it turned out to be tremendously valuable in understanding the market (and this particular competitor).
Sounds like they were "negging" you pretty hard. The parallels with dating seem numerous when I look through the lens of you (in a technical hire context) as "the attractive woman at the bar" and corp dev as "the pick-up artist."
Two out of three were. The third was polite and professional but the offer just wasn't quite good enough. When I turned it down they just kind of went dark, which I interpret as a no. Interesting the third was a big successful late-stage startup, while the rude ones were early stage startups.
Negging? New to me. Shows how little I know about sleazy dating (and hiring?) tactics.
Should I now worry about waking up with a headache, being unable to remember what I did the previous night, but with a folded up copy of a signed asset transfer agreement in my pocket? :)
> Should I now worry about waking up with a headache, being unable to remember what I did the previous night, but with a folded up copy of a signed asset transfer agreement in my pocket? :)
If they literally try to wine and dine you... maybe?
Are you looking to be hired? Whenever a company comes to me with a "great open position you'd be a perfect fit for" I tell them no, I'm working on my startup and I'm not interested. I'm not going to waste my time talking to them.
They weren't really clear about their intentions right away. If they were, I'd probably just say no. In two out of three cases it sounded like they were interested in being a customer.
Up front give them a high salary number (plus one off for your project) that you'd be willing to accept, and tell them you talk if they are willing to meet that.
Saves you time in the worst case, but still lets good offers through.
Keep at it and grow that thing you're building, the more serious offers will eventually come. For the time being just ignore the noise any time you spend on will not be made up.
At this stage I've gotten what after reading this essay sounds like the baby brother of this: the oddly aggressive hire attempt. These companies have been not necessarily direct competitors but people in related spaces who might want to add what I'm doing to their tech portfolio or use its techniques in their products.
The interactions have been quite different from any other "job interview" I've ever had. I've said no three times so far to some version of: "your project is awesome," followed by some interesting discussion, followed by a hiring offer. The hiring offers have been decent but not outstanding, and they've included nothing for the project -- no "acquisition" to go with the hire. When I bring this up, the response is that my baby isn't "worth very much on its own," etc. In one case the response was oddly condescending even in its wording, which was discouraging until I went and read all the users raving about my stuff and then looked at my rather nice looking metrics again. In another case it was explained to me that while my product was interesting, I obviously wasn't... "business" enough? That's not how they put it but that was kind of the implication. I interpreted it as "you're not coming off as alpha male enough to run a business" or some version of that.
In retrospect I saw these as negotiating tactics to shake my confidence in moving forward myself. These folks are trying to get me plus a lot (3 years) of code, users, and momentum without actually paying anything for the latter two things. Looks a lot like the kind of hardball PG is talking about-- I assume "corp dev" offers come in when you're at a bit of a later stage.
Now I've got another one in the pipeline. I've decided the best way to deal with them is to go ahead and chat but otherwise to change nothing about what I am doing, to not spend much time on them, and to constantly remind myself that I am the one interviewing them and deciding whether to accept their offer. At this point given the metrics I'm seeing, the offer would have to be very good.
I'd say that the advice in this essay is probably good advice. If you do have the internal discipline/experience to put these sorts of things in a "maybe but probably not" folder, it might not hurt to chat about it with them, but if you have any doubt or if you're too busy just say no and move on. If my current discussion turns out like the previous ones I will probably do the same moving forward.