Salary ask for a start-up job (not IT)

[Anonymous]

I'm going to go work for a friend on his start-up business, currently being incubated. It's going well, but I have no sense of how much revenue they're producing - they produce a product for consumer sale. Not IT or anything hugely lucrative. He's asked me to tell him what I want to be paid - likely hourly. I've been billed out by consulting firms in in several hundred per hour figures, but this is a totally different field and skill set - I'll basically be around to pitch in and do whatever he doesn't have time to - from shipping to marketing to compliance to staff management. I'd love to make this something I can afford to do exclusively; I do need to make an income.

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on how to figure out what to ask for. It's a bit more awkward with a friend, and I just haven't found any resources that will give me ideas of what they can afford or even what is fair.

[Anonymous]

COO startup positions go for around 80k (or less), with an equity trade off. I think a number of startup COOs (which it sounds like what you'd be doing) take 60k for the first year as they evaluate how the company will grown.

[Anonymous]

Careful with accepting equity in lieu of salary. It is very easy to dilute shareholder value in order to benefit late round funders. This also assumes you get over the first hurdle of having the equity mean anything in the first place

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks. Equity isn't on the table at this point, and I need the salary anyway.

Any thoughts about working hourly versus salaried?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks. Equity isn't on the table at this point, and I need the salary anyway.

Any thoughts about working hourly versus salaried?

If you think it's awkward now, it will be 100x more awkward when your friend/boss questions your hours. I'd highly recommend a salary so you can be "fully invested" instead of hourly - where you become an easy-to-cut cost when times get tough, you have to figure out how to charge when he calls you at 8 pm and wants to talk through something for 20 minutes, etc etc.

Hourly wouldn't work for me in this setting.