Whats the best way to turn down a job offer?

Can I turn a job offer into an acquisition?

• I've spent my life in academia, but I'm looking to make a move. Utilizing weekends over the past year I've built what I believe is a cutting edge tool for incorporating highly detailed demographic forecasts (my academic specialty) into business intelligence. It's already a nearly complete product - tons of statistical models run, the results combined into a large database, and an elegant user interface on top of it all. But, as an academic with no business experience, I don't know how to go about selling this product to users. An interesting possible alternative just came my way, though - I got a job offer from a big Silicon Valley firm whose product I think would be nicely complemented by mine. They don't know about my project though, they just made the offer based off my academic work. Could I tell them that instead of hiring me they should acquire my project and then I'd work for them? That would be an awesome turn of events for me, but it seems a little gauche to suggest it and I have no idea if that'd work. Is there a good approach for such a situation? Just say "well, would you like to look at something I've been working on, first?"

• Answer:

  I would be very careful with that approach because if you mention that product, they might then question your dedication to their company and could possibly rescind the offer. I agree that would turn that into an awesome set of events, but could turn very bad on you. Companies want to make sure that you are dedicated to them. If you show them that product, they will think you are not there for the long run. If I were you, I would wait till I join the company then bring it up. But, you have to make sure that they don't try to own the product, saying that you built it on company time, etc.