Income Negotiation

Originally written for an internship, I have adapted this to help friends in negotiating their offers. Please reach out if you found this helpful

Should I negotiate?

It might be scary to ask for better compensation.

However, most companies price this into their offer and almost expect you to negotiate.

Don’t let someone else assign your value.

It’s for a mutually beneficial future, think of it like picking out a home rather than haggling your self worth.

01 Checklist of Considerations for Negotiation

What should I figure out before negotiating?

  1. Figure out the role’s market rate.
    • Consider the role’s typical compensation, the seniority level, where you’ll be living, what tradeoffs you’ll be making switching from your current role
  2. Try to get a sense of how much the equity is worth.
    1. This is … not easy, not even for investors. Valuations are your best benchmark, but still consider how much over/undervalued this might be given varying exits.
  3. How critical is your role?
    • Companies hire because they need to solve an issue. Most roles are replaceable, but when they extend an offer, many do not want to hunt for another candidate again.
    • Your unique skills or domain experience might be enough to warrant a push, but please do not mention school name or financial circumstances in negotiating. Mostly priced in.
  4. It is much easier to negotiate if you have pending interviews or even better competing offers
    • You have absolutely no leverage if you don’t have a Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). Even if you have no competing offers, this could be your current role, too, or just your comfort in walking away!
  5. Levers you can pull for competing offers
    1. Higher overall compensation than the option you want
    2. Higher equity or higher salary than the option you want
    3. Location can be a point as well

Negotiate with yourself

On your end, how much do you value this role?

  • Potential for upside (or downside) in value of company
  • Brand name
  • Culture
  • Title and role-specific day to day
  • Growth potential at the company
  • Location / remote flexibility
  • and much more!
  • How does negotiating change the role’s desirability for you?

02 Strategy for Negotiation

  1. Don’t let deadlines impede your emotions.
    • Sometimes a recruiter will give you an incredibly short timeline to accept. Or even an exploding offer!
    • Ask them for an extension, remember they gave you an offer and want you. Do not give into pressure.
  2. It’s not locked in until it’s in writing.
    • Verbal calls, assumptions, etc. don’t mean anything! Get it in writing.
  3. Don’t lay out all your cards.
    • It’s easy for them to back you into a corner if they have all the information
    • During the offer call, let them know how excited you are and collect information. Don’t push back until you have the offer in writing and understands all of the details, and have constructed a plan of attack.
  4. Set a goal.
    • Be transparent with them and do not let go when they try to negotiate with you.
    • Make sure it’s realistic, of course.
  5. Focus on Equity.
    • The most flexible form of compensation is typically equity at an early-stage company. It’s ok to ask for multiple things as long as your requests are reasonable based on your research. Right before a startup raises an upround is the best time for your equity, but startups are most actively hiring after a new round of funding.
  6. Remember: They want you.
    • The hiring manager likely needs to check with someone else before agreeing to anything. You are on the same side of the table as the hiring manager — you are working together to come up with a way you can make this happen on both sides.
    • The manager can go to bat for you, but most of the time, there’s a different person (might be co-founders! or a whole compensation team) that makes the final call.
  7. Be confident and firm.
    • You always have other opportunities (other offers, grad school, your own projects)
    • Talk as if you are willing to walk away if they don’t increase the offer. Every company has its faults and you should do some diligence on the faults that you will accept when you join this company.
  8. But don’t let your ego get in the way!
    • It might be the case that you feel you are down-leveled and feel you are higher in seniority than you might think.
    • However, there are downwind effects if you cannot perform later on. Sometimes starting out lower is better long term. Lots of personal things to consider — keep in mind if you are excited about the team, manager and company.

03 Any helpful examples?

Using averages to counter total compensation:

Normally, you might check glassdoor.com, avg salaries for your area, or levels.fyi, Blind if you’re in tech. For startups, it’s not easy. Much of this is taboo word of mouth. Pave is a tool founders use to benchmark their salaries, but it’s not accessible to most. Here is some public data (dated 2024 for VHCOL cities)

Technical roles

![[IMG-How to Negotiate-2025-08-06.png]]

Operator Roles

![[IMG-How to Negotiate-2025-08-06-3.png]]

Sales Roles

![[IMG-How to Negotiate-2025-08-06-4.png]] Credits to Vinay Iyengar

Here are some snippets

I’m very excited about the position and know that I’d be the right fit for the team. I’m also excited about your offer, and know that I’ll bring a lot of value to the table based on my experience that we discussed during the interviews. I’m wondering if we can explore a slightly higher starting salary of [amount]. My market research showed that as the industry average for the area, and I’m confident that you’ll be happy with how much I can contribute to the team and department.

  • Open to copy and paste this script

    I'm very excited about the position and know that I'd be the right fit for the team.  I'm also excited about your offer, and know that I'll bring a lot of value to the table based on my experience that we discussed during the interviews.  I'm wondering if we can explore a slightly higher starting salary of [amount].  My market research showed that as the industry average for the area, and I'm confident that you'll be happy with how much I can contribute to the team and department.

When they say “No”:

Most of the times, you’ll get a reluctant response, something along the lines of: “We don’t have room to negotiate.”

Potential responses:

I definitely understand budgeting issues, and I want to be as flexible as possible to work with your team. I’m still very excited about working together with you. Getting closer to that amount is important to get me onboard because it’s [consistent with the market; a similar level to other opportunities that I’m considering; etc.]

During my conversations with [past interviewers], I was so impressed with [X point]. I really believe in the future of [product or vertical company is operating in]. If the compensation could be more up to par, I wouldn’t hesitate to join.

I understand that at this point, salary isn’t negotiable. Would you consider including [this benefit] as part of the package?

  • Open to copy and paste this script

    *I definitely understand budgeting issues, and I want to be as flexible as possible to work with your team.  I'm still very excited about working together with you.  Getting closer to that amount is important to get me onboard because it's [consistent with the market; a similar level to other opportunities that I'm considering; etc.]

I understand that at this point, salary isn't negotiable.  Would you consider including [this benefit] as part of the package*

Resources

Also great negotiation tactics: