I work for a well-funded Series C SaaS startup in the Bay. The pay is in the 50th percentile for my skills and experience. My hope is that the company will hit IPO in the 2-3 billion range in the future (3-4 yrs). The company just had a positive cash flow of around 6M, with revenue over 60M.<p>BUT, I fear that there will be churn in the coming years. It has already started. Not sure if our customers find the service valuable. The company has pains around delivering value to our customers.<p>My question is: What should I look for in the company that can tell me whether to stay for > 3 years (so I'm fully vested) or cut losses and move on to another company with higher pay?<p>* I understand the HN wisdom is never to rely on future growth of a company and instead, just take higher paying jobs. But there has to be data-points and factors that will indicate whether a company will be successful or not, right?
Several things I'd consider...<p>- Is the $60M greater or lesser than last year? How strong is that growth? How does your growth compare to competitors, if there are any?<p>- How much did that revenue cost the company? For example, if marketing expenses were $100M to win $60M revenue, that's probably a problem. If marketing was $20M, the company may be healthy.<p>- With $60M in revenue, customers see some value, but what is the buying behavior of customers? Do they in general sign up and use for a while, then stop using? Do they 'buy up' to additional services (if that's your business model). Are there a significant number that continue to use and pay?<p>- The concern about delivering value may just be healthy customer-focused anxiety, or, it may be due to undesirable customer buying behavior. I'd get to the bottom of that. If the buying behavior is not negative, then your management may actually be pretty solid. If the buying behavior is poor, you're going to need to make a judgement call on whether you believe management can work through it.<p>- Also consider that at Series C, several VCs are already betting that your company will succeed. What is the track record of the investors?
If you could predict what you're asking you'd be the world's most successful VC funder. I think a better thing to do would be to have a few offers all the time. Be interviewing or building your network so that if you do lose your job you can find another one quickly. That and investing in yourself to be as good as you can be.