Posted: 6/28/2017 9:19:53 PM EDT
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I started another thread related to this today:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/2008172_Tell-me-about-employee-leasing-please-.html Long story short my entire career is based around a niche software solution. I am not going to say what it is because if you know it, you likely know me or one of the 10 or so other people who have also built a career around it. No, it has nothing to do with pron. It's an enterprise solution. I have moved from using it, to tech support for it to development for it for one of the clients that uses it, I currently work remotely doing this. Today the guy that created it, then sold the company called me. He is starting a new company that will basically negate the need for an IT department to use it. The company will provide full service from hardware install, setup, network admin and support. He has an agreement with his old company (the one he built and sold) to do this. He has been doing this off shore for two years, I would be one of his first employee's for the US company. Working from home is very important to me and I expressed that to him. He said "we can work with that". I didn't ask specifically what that meant, I should have but his phone call caught me off guard. I need to get clarification. We haven't talked specific numbers yet but he asked what my current salary is (it's around 75K) he said we can do much better than that. Assuming other people are going to handle the onsite things and I will continue to be remote, would you move from development to mostly support and a little development for what is basically a start up in the US? Is moving from development back to mostly support career suicide? I like the guy very much, I have never worked directly for him but I have known him basically my entire career. |
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If you have all that experience in development and only make 75k, you've already committed career suicide, so you have nothing to lose. We hire kids out of college at 65k now. |
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He might have an agreement with the other company to do this, but what do you have. What does your employment/confidentiality/non-competes say? |
| How widely used is this "niche software solution". With only 10 people that know how to develop and support it. I am guessing its use is not widespread, otherwise you would have more money than you would know what to do with. With that said if it is something thing that can grow and become widely used I would say you should definitely ask for stock options. Chance are the boss will sell again and leave you on your own again. |
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If this guy and his new model are as good as you say joining up maybe your only option. A known player in a niche market has a huge advantage if he's got a quality plan to drive outsourcing.
Really consider how successful this model is going to be and then decide if this offer a lifeline or anchor. If it's a good plan you may be positioning yourself in a good position for the future. |
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How widely used is this "niche software solution". With only 10 people that know how to develop and support it. I am guessing its use is not widespread, otherwise you would have more money than you would know what to do with. With that said if it is something thing that can grow and become widely used I would say you should definitely ask for stock options. Chance are the boss will sell again and leave you on your own again. |
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Sounds like you're missing out on the money train.
Things like that can go either way, hang on for years and continue to see use, or basically be career suicide once you've pigeonholed yourself. It sounds like the business model is changing fairly drastically. As long as you can keep yourself relevant and in demand you should be gtg. |
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I am not arfcom rich  . Maybe if I take the new gig I can afford one hooker and a little blow  .Quoted:
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For being in a niche enterprise market, I was surprised at how low that number was, too. . Maybe if I take the new gig I can afford one hooker and a little blow .
But niche markets tend to draw more money, not less, if you're good at it. |
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That's a good point I never even thought about, thank you for bringing it up. I was not required to sign one at my current employer. Quoted:
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He might have an agreement with the other company to do this, but what do you have. What does your employment/confidentiality/non-competes say? Ok. Have you worked on this system anywhere else? Get clear on everything you signed. Regardless, if you leave and start working with this guy, take nothing with you. Study the legal concept of "Residual Rights." What you have in your memory is yours, provided you did not memorize expressly to pirate intellectual property. Residual Rights exist and are protected even if a contract does not specifically mention them. http://licensing-lawyer.com/blog1.php/more-on-joint-inventions-1 Your past work has left you with an understanding, methodology, familiarity, and predisposition to work with this system better than someone "just off the boat;" and you have a right to exploit that. There is a lot of money to be made in support, modification, and enhancements of critical Enterprise systems. This sounds like a good opportunity. You should be able to get a higher rate. When it comes to profit sharing and stock options, get a lawyer who knows what he is doing to run things by. In a very small business, such things can get very fuzzy. |