Why I Invested in Rora

Jayant Krishnamurthy graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a PhD in Computer Science. He currently works as a researcher at Microsoft.

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Why I Invested in Rora

I have always hated offer negotiations, for two reasons. First, they are high-stakes situations, as a good outcome can increase your compensation by a significant amount. I've seen negotiations where candidates have added hundreds of thousands of dollars to their compensation. With that much money at stake, who wouldn't find the situation stressful?

Second, offer negotiations have always felt unfair. The recruiter negotiates every day, and I negotiate every few years at most. The recruiter has all of the information, and I have none. It's difficult to negotiate when you don't know the market or the tactics.

After the last time I went through this process, I wished I could have hired someone to negotiate for me. They would have done a better job and saved me a lot of stress.

Rora is the service I wish I had back then. Rora solves the unfairness problem by negotiating on your behalf.

This service makes sense for many reasons:

• Rora's career agents know the market as they constantly see offers for similar candidates from the same companies. They know what to ask for to maximize your compensation.

• Rora has seen all of the tricks recruiters use to pressure candidates to skip negotiations. For example, many companies will give you offers with tight deadlines to accept, but they'll happily extend the deadline if you ask.

• The price is right. Rora charges a percent of the compensation increase they earn for you. If they don't improve your offers, you don't pay.

Furthermore, I believe there are deep structural reasons why Rora needs to exist. The job market is opaque and illiquid, and no two candidates are identical. In this kind of market, you need deep knowledge in order to understand what is a fair offer. Candidates are simply not immersed in the market in a way that allows them to understand the current structure and pricing, but recruiters are.

Consequently, there's an information asymmetry that hurts candidates. The asymmetry is even more profound in uncommon specialties like artificial intelligence where it is more difficult to obtain information about comparable candidates. Rora gives you an advocate who understands the market and ensures that you earn what you are worth.

Rora is a service that I have always wanted, and furthermore that I deeply believe candidates need. That's why I have invested.

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