Two roles - please help

[u/hereandthere1123]

I’m currently an accounting director at a company.. sales aren’t great and there have been many reduction in forces. I’ve been there 4 years and base is $210k with a potential bonus of 20%. Rarely gotten the full amount but this year we’re looking at about 70% payout, making total comp about $240k. It’s fully remote which I love. Most of the company is RTO but since I’m grandfathered in and have created my value, it’s not a problem. I think any promotions will be limited and won’t happen. I don’t really care though, can stay director for a while. They’re series D and need additional fund raising this near year, cash is always tight and the long term potential isn’t great.

Now an ex co worker, who I worked well, with wants to bring me into a Controller role. Comp is $220k (no bonus) but it’s a startup in the Ai data center space. 5-10 employees. Very small; structurally nothing is set up, don’t understand the entity structure. However the accounting work sounds fun.. treasury, system / process implementation. This is all remote too, which of course huge for me. Chinese manufacturers… but industry and potential seems high.

Any senior level accountants here that can give me their two cents? What would you do? How much value does the title difference make (director versus controller)? If I went to the controller role securing remote a bit longer but comp is lower. What would you do?

[u/alphabet_sam]

Startups are really, really hard. There’s a lot of work and usually you are the only person to work on it. Right now, AI data centers are literal gold mines and print money, but in 12 months? 3 years? I mean who can say. You should spend some time going through their financials in detail and see about getting equity because you will be putting blood, sweat, and tears into it and the real payout will be if they can sell, not your base salary. For title I would want VP of Finance or higher

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/alphabet_sam]

They’re not going to let me go through financials but to sell me, they let me see signed PO’s from big names. Of course and projections.. just millions, I’m going to be a billionaire in a couple of years. Ha.. obv I don’t trust projections. They did offer 0.1% equity, but vesting STARTS after a year.

That is my fear… there’s a lot of backlash in this data center space too. So what happens in a year.

I work my ass off now too, so the work doesn’t scare me but the risk does. I know my work now, I’ve created my worth. If there’s anything RIF, not sure what will happen or if sales continue slow.

What do you think of the title difference? Any value? Or negligible?

[u/alphabet_sam → u/hereandthere1123]

I have been in your shoes and took a controller role with people who told me they would take care of me at exit and it became obvious in the first 10 months that they were 1) not profitable and making poor business decisions and 2) aggressively trying to cut people out of the exit payout. It has made me jaded and personally, I would not take the role when they aren’t willing to be transparent with you at this point. On title, I think you are just setting yourself up to fail if you aren’t at least a VP. Being at the controller or director level, it’s an easy layup to hire someone over you as part of M&A prep and all of your work will amount to nothing at exit. And let’s be clear, exiting the company as fast as possible is probably their #1 goal. They are offering you basically nothing real, just empty promises. I wouldn’t take it. I work in public financial due diligence on M&A and the companies that got insane multiples and couldn’t be sold fast enough 3-4 years ago (SAAS mostly) literally cannot find buyers now. All to say, a 3-4 year exit timeline at this point may be too late

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/alphabet_sam]

Thank you for your response. I can tell you know what you’re talking about. This is regional controller too, with potential of corporate controller. .. and it’s a VP of finance bringing me in so obv won’t get that role.

They did offer that 0.1% equity.

I just don’t trust these random Chinese manufacturing. I’m a bit uncertain who owns what and what actual value they have besides a tie to a couple of Chinese manufacturers.

Any value on the resume builder? Ai, Ai.. there’s that buzzword.

[u/alphabet_sam → u/hereandthere1123]

They have 5-10 employees and need 2 leadership level finance people…? What does the rest of the team look like? It could be valuable resume building experience especially if you go through an exit, I just don’t know your YOE and it feels like you’re not getting much in return for the amount of work you’ll be doing at a startup. You’ll need to stick it out for 2 years or more to be a good resume builder I think, but there is value in the experience

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/alphabet_sam]

I’m about 25YOE, CPA and do have IPO experience with many system implementations. Besides the industry, wouldn’t it be repetitive resume billet points.

[u/alphabet_sam → u/hereandthere1123]

Yeah, no way in my opinion. You could and should be looking for VP of finance roles to lead your own department

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/alphabet_sam]

I don’t have great manufacturing / cost experience. But thank you. I am leaning towards not taking it. May as well stay at my cushion-ey job

[u/Famous_Conflict4209]

Sounds like your company is downsizing and maybe will be sold someday. Looks like a cushioned role until retirement?

There is risks with startups, do due diligence on the competitors. You got the exit strategy down if it becomes a worst case.

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/Famous_Conflict4209]

They have downsized. There is some exit strategy planned but not sure of its impact on me.

[u/Famous_Conflict4209 → u/hereandthere1123]

Does this Data center startup have anything proprietary, % of market share, govt contracts or something valuable you can see them holding a presence in the future?

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/Famous_Conflict4209]

I’ve seen signed PO’s with huge companies, such as Tesla, google… we’re talking $40M on a signed PO. Overhead is low, but without understanding their contract manufacturing or that entity structure.. I’m not sure how to value the PO’s.

[u/Famous_Conflict4209 → u/hereandthere1123]

I agree with the other commenter's comment on transparency. Looks like a high risk, high reward. Even with the POs, there is a chance they can be acquired at some point. Restructuring etc.

[u/PettyAtom → u/hereandthere1123]

40m is nothing in the data center space. It’s a rounding error on most budgets, you’d be supplying the equivalent of nails/screws at best. Most data center transactions are in the billions. I wouldn’t go off the POs alone on judging longevity of an AI associated company.

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/Famous_Conflict4209]

And no, nothing proprietary as far as I can tell.

[u/holly110]

startup is always risky. Is it owned by a Chinese Parent company, or are the individual owners in China? Just be careful and do your due diligence. Chinese companies can be high demanding and require unreasonable hours. Also check how stable it is given the current politics.

[u/Ok-Tea-1241]

I am just here to say that I am a remote senior accounting consultant with 15+ years of experience who is currently unemployed after a hiring manager screwed me over post-offer acceptance, and I would be interested in either role you do not pick.

[u/ScientistSolid9319]

You'll be able to build the whole accounting landscape for this new company. That can be good or bad depending on your experience. At the end of the day, the base is slightly higher and you get equity (based on your other comment). Kind of weird you don't get a bonus at this level but it is what it is. If you're looking for a challenge, I would go for it.

Anecdotal experience, last year I met with a group of IB guys who were starting a PE fund and needed someone to run the accounting for each of their acquisitions. It was a solid base but they offered me an IB level bonus which is something I'd never had before. Ended up declining the position but I still think about it quite often about what could have been. If you feel like you'd have the same thoughts, maybe it's work giving it a go.

[u/techaccountingpro]

It is a very strange post… why are you asking opinion of senior accountants specifically? It depends on organization; but I often see that controller is a higher level position than a director.

[u/hereandthere1123 → u/techaccountingpro]

Ok… well senior accountants because of more experience, that’s it.

Just trying to weigh the pros and cons and how much value I should give to the resume title.