Just finished a negotiation with DoorDash and want to document what worked because most negotiation advice is too generic to be useful.
Context: L5 SWE offer, SF. Initial offer was $185k base, $450k equity, 15% bonus target.
What I tried and the outcome:
Base salary: moved. I had a competing offer from another company at $196k base. Sent it to the recruiter. DoorDash came back at $195k. Quick and clean. They basically matched without asking many questions about the competing offer.
Equity grant: did not move. I asked for $500k on the grant. Recruiter came back the same day and said equity grants are "band-locked" at L5 and she can't flex them. I pushed once more and got the same answer from the hiring manager's side. I believe it.
Signing bonus: small move. Initial offer had no signing bonus. I asked for $25k pointing to a few months of unvested equity I was leaving behind. They offered $15k. I accepted that as a compromise.
Level: no move. I asked if there was a path to be considered for L6 given my background. The answer was that L6 is a separate hiring process with different rounds and I would have had to start over. Not worth it at that point.
Final offer: $195k base, $450k equity (back-weighted 4-year), $15k signing, 15% bonus target.
General pattern I noticed: DoorDash recruiter moved fast once I named a number. No "I'll get back to you in a week." She was back within a day. That made the whole thing less stressful than I expected. The clarity on what is and isn't flexible (equity basically locked, base not locked) is also genuine in my experience. Don't waste time trying to move equity unless you have extraordinary leverage.