Startup offers look different from big-company offers, and a lot of candidates negotiate them the wrong way because they are used to a different set of rules.

Base salary at an early-stage startup is often genuinely constrained by what is in the bank, not by what the company thinks you are worth. Pushing hard on base alone can stall a negotiation that would have gone smoothly somewhere else. Equity, title, start date, and role scope are usually more flexible, and they matter more to your long-term outcome anyway if the company does well.

Ask about the equity refresh policy, not just the initial grant. Ask what the last valuation was and when the next round is expected, since that context tells you more about what your equity might be worth than the number of shares alone. Ask what success looks like in the first six months, since that shapes whether your title and scope actually mean what they sound like.

A good recruiter will walk you through all of this before you get the offer, not leave you to figure it out during a two-day decision window. That is how ScrumAID works with every candidate we place.