

Ask HN: What should I try to negotiate? - anonymois

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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Thanks!
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th0ma5
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!

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anonymois
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.

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solost
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.

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petervandijck
\- 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?

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MaysonL
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.

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staunch
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.

