Will try not to make this a novel. Left a great company 3 years ago because the company that I work for now offered 20% more on base salary + 10% equity in the division they brought me in to help start. Been in the industry for 32 years. Made a lot of contacts w/ the right people over the years. Was able to get us in with End Users almost immediately. Grew sales by 200% year 1 to year 2, 300% year 2 to year 3, and this year should have been another 100% growth over last, but incoming Sales will be identical to 2023 because...
Three months ago the CEO instructed me to no-bid a shit ton of projects (we'll call them XYZ projects) because our execution team shit the bed on similar XYZ projects that I sold in late 2023 and were executed this year. One broke even (should have made $500k profit), and the other lost money (should have made $700k profit). Because he's handcuffed me, I won't meet my bonus goal this year. That's the first thing that I'm pissed off about. And because we lost money on these two projects, the equity is worthless after 3 years.
Well, if there's anything I've learned, it's timing is everything.
Like a blessing from the Man upstairs, a customer of mine reached out to me 3-4 weeks ago about entertaining an offer from them. Same salary + commission. I like it. Pay me for what I sell. Not on margin. Sales. There are hurdles with the commission structure & payout. I've countered and am working directly with the owner. Negotiations ongoing. 50/50 if this works out.
And when I reached out to an older gentleman in the industry, who I consider a mentor, for counsel...he asked if I'd be willing to entertain an offer from his company before making a decision. I have another meeting with them tomorrow, and I expect I'll have a formal offer before year end.
In the meantime, the CEO of the company that I work for now (who handcuffed me) reached out on 12/12, saying he could tell I was frustrated, didn't want to lose me, and asked me to propose a revised comp plan that I would be happy with (I did that 12/13). Haven't heard back. He asked for time 'to reflect' on it. Not really worried about negotiating with him until I have offers finalized with the other places anyway.
So now I have options,
I fully expect my current CEO to not give me what I asked for, because that's what most CEO's think they're supposed to do. Most have no clue how to effectively operate a business (seriously). My guess is he'll take 30% off of what I proposed, and counter with that. If I get what I want from one, or both, of the other two places, I will gladly tell him to pound sand. It's to the point now where I'm unhappy, there are several people in the company who I can't stand because their performance fucked me financially, and I'm more than willing to leave.
Even if I don't get everything that I want from the other two places, but their offers are even slightly better than what I have now, I'll still probably tell him to pound sand.
