Resignation is Official - New Agreement is Executed, but wait... - Update in OP and Page 5

June 2017 I got a 25% raise. Told me how great I was, never a better employee, etc etc. Put my salary at about 52k. I work for a small company, absolutely no benefits outside of my salary.

This month, I was scheduled for a very small raise (5%). My boss absolutely blindsides me, tells me he thinks my performance is lacking, I'm not giving 110% and that "on some days I think you only work an hour a day".

I'm pretty friendly with this boss and was very surprised by this PR. It came out of no where and he had never mentioned poor performance at any point prior to this. I think it had to do with no-one was getting a raise and if he told me my performance was good, he'd have to listen to me argue for a raise.

I bit my tongue and kept my head down, started putting in applications and floating my resume to people in my network.

I quickly interviewed for and yesterday got offered a job with a much larger (Fortune 500) company about an hour from my home. (I consider that a very short commute, but about twice as long as my current commute).

I will get a 20% raise from my current salary, benefits (health, dental, vision, 401k) and after my first 3 months, a performance review with the opportunity for another bump in pay.

Today, I gave my boss my 2 weeks notice. He did not seem surprised. He asked me what he could do to keep me. I explained the paragraph above (I'm getting a 20% raise and benefits with great growth potential at a large company, my commute is much longer)

I had the same conversation with my CEO.

They asked me if I would listen to a counter-offer and I told them I would listen to anything they had to say.

My question to the money board:

With the information above, would you ever accept a counter? I don't imagine they can put together something competitive, but now it has me thinking.

It would take an offer in the 75k-80k range for me to accept. I don't think they will offer that.

Even if they did and I accepted, am I permanently marked as not "loyal"? I feel like they'd be looking for the first opportunity to replace me with a cheaper option.

If I wasn't worth this amount when I asked for it back in 2017, why am I suddenly worth it when someone else is willing to pay me that? I just had a terrible performance-review, why keep such a bad employee?

TLDR:

Last year I got a 25% raise. This month, my boss gave me a shitty performance review. I got an offer for a 20% raise (and benefits which I don't have now) from a large company. I put in my resignation. Now they want to counter-offer. Should I accept their offer, even if it is better, or have I permanently placed a bulls eye on my back at this company?

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Update

They provided me their counteroffer today.

It was about 7% higher than what the F500 is offering in salary, still no benefits.

I explained that at that number, I would have to decline.

My boss became very emotional/upset asking what it would take to keep me.

I explained it wasn't about money but about growth opportunity and feeling like I didn't want to work in a place where I had to put in my resignation to advance. I can't understand why I wasn't this valuable before, but now that I'm leaving, I am.

He explained the company didn't make any money and he just couldn't give me anything else at that time. This is still the case and he'd be taking out a "loan" in the form of more money from our CEO/Owner.

He begged me for a counter to his counter, I explained I really didn't want to give one because I don't think there was anything realistic.

He eventually pulled "80k and 5% equity" out of me.

Now he's scheming for a way to make that work or something competitive, offering to pay my salary out of his if the company can't afford it and guaranteeing me a percentage of sales from our new product launch... I don't think he could get the board to ever agree to these things, I don't know why he's suggesting them.

This whole process is now very uncomfortable for me.
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Update-

I did apologize for not considering his counter more carefully and for pulling a number out of my butt.

I told him that I talked with my family and S/O and had made the decision to go with the F500.

He did not seem upset and I think I was successful in making this an amicable split. I should be able to remain friends and have a good reference from this guy moving forward.

I announced it to the small team here at the office and told them it wasn't an easy decision and how much I enjoyed working with everyone.

I will tell my off-shore team on Monday.

Unfortunately, the drama isn't yet over.

I'm going for a second round interview with a company 10 minutes from my house offering generous benefits and 85-100k in salary.

If I land that by some miracle, I'll be having a very awkward conversation with my very new boss at the F500...