[geofft]

An "acqui-hire" is the process of acquiring a team that you know works well together and is capable of putting out a product and probably has relevant domain knowledge, without going through the traditional process of finding generally competent people, throwing them in a room, and seeing if they can get something done.

If it's a solo founder, and especially if they're not being recruited to work on a similar sort of project, I don't think there's anything to make it an "acqui-hire" instead of a "yo, shut down your company and come work for us".

[abalone]

There's a crucial difference. Acquihires are typically at a much higher price, one reason being that other investors often need to be taken care of for the founder to leave on good terms. The corpdev/recruiter even mentioned $2M as a maximum figure. That's not exactly a typical engineering signing bonus.

[vidarh]

It's not a typical engineering signing bonus, but it's far from unheard of.

[imacomputer2]

Seriously? You've heard of engineers being hired for 2M? I want that job! This is a serious question. 2M is just unthinkable for me.

[patio11]

Know that this is a thing that exists in the world. At least one HNer could get it approximately tomorrow if they wanted it. Typical form is a large equity grant which, for a publicly traded company, is indistinguishable from cash with a vesting schedule.

[tmuir]

pg is an HNer. It's safe to assume that several other HNers have reputations that would allow them to write such a ticket. Do you assert that someone whose only marketable skills revolved around software development could achieve such a thing?

[patio11]

I assert this. Please understand if I can't be more specific than "I have material non-public information on this topic."

[kngspook]

I believe that a (relative) large number of HNers could pull 2M in comp annually. I believe very, very few could do so in a purely-technical, no-management role though...PG included.

[shitlord]

The most I've ever heard is 1M from someone on Wall Street. I'm even more jealous!