I was first contacted by a recruiter who explained the role, the company, and then discussed my experience and salary requirements. I then had two phone interviews with the Director of Marketing, and one in-person meeting after the offer was given. The offer I received was well below what I told the recruiter I was currently making, even considering I currently live in a very affordable state with low cost of living. The offer was well below market for a position like this in Southern California, factoring in cost of living and my experience. The hiring manager explained that many people took a pay cut to work there. I'm sure the company is growing fast and there is a lot of opportunity to be had, but I didn't think the opportunity warranted settling for less, knowing full well my experience was worth more. I got the vibe that they were not going to negotiate the salary at all. Even knowing that I submitted my counter-offer which I thought was appropriate, and met them in the middle - marginally higher then their initial offer but still less than my current pay. I didn't hear back for more than a week, and had to follow up with both the hiring manager and recruiter by phone, text, and email to get a response. They ended up rejecting my counter offer via email. This was very telling of the company culture.