Favorite Parts of Being a Founder at YourNegotiations.com
Gerta, Founder of YourNegotiations.com, finds immense satisfaction in "helping people" navigate challenging job offer negotiations, especially during times of tech layoffs, combining this impactful work with the creative problem-solving inherent in building a startup and leveraging their negotiation expertise. The company's success-based pricing model and commitment to free resources further underscore this mission-driven approach.
Negotiation, Entrepreneurship, Problem-Solving, Creativity, Helping People
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Gerta Malaj
Founder
YourNegotiations.com
Wellesley College
MIT
Mathematics, Data Science, Statistics
Coaching, Speaking & Writing
Entrepreneurship and Business Owner
International Student, Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Immigrant
Video Highlights
1. Helping people negotiate job offers and business contracts, especially during challenging economic times such as tech layoffs. The work is personally rewarding, and the company's pricing model ensures that they only profit when clients benefit.
2. The creative process involved in running a startup, such as developing innovative solutions to increase clients (e.g., affiliate programs). This aspect highlights the entrepreneurial nature of the role and the freedom to implement new ideas.
3. Leveraging personal expertise in negotiation. This aspect underscores the importance of skill development and specialization in finding fulfilling career paths.
Transcript
What do you enjoy most about being in your current role?
There are a couple of things I really enjoy. The absolute main one is helping people. As I mentioned, we help people negotiate their job offers and business contracts.
We started at the peak of tech layoffs when people were being underleveled and offered significantly less than they were making before. It's been painful to see people in tech associate their identities with their jobs, making them feel less valuable when their income decreases.
Being able to help people not only recover but also secure offers on par with or exceeding their previous salaries has been incredibly rewarding. Many of our clients have families and young children, which makes this work priceless to me.
That's why I put out a lot of free content to share with people who cannot afford our services. Our pricing model is also success-based; we only get paid if we help people increase their offers. We take a percentage of the amount of the increase, so I'm very proud of our business's mission.
The second piece is creativity. I don't think many people realize how much creativity goes into a startup. For me, it's less about design and more about coming up with innovative ideas to increase our client base.
For example, we created an affiliate program where if you refer someone, they get 10% off, and you get 10% of what they pay. This way, all three parties win, and we've created value for three people. This type of creativity is so rewarding.
It's hard to have this in a regular job because you have a manager who may or may not like your idea, and you have many stakeholders. The third thing is that we started this business based on my expertise in negotiations, which is very rewarding. I really enjoy that a lot.