I cringe every time I read startups proudly writing about their unique compensation philosophies. Almost without exception, they have to end up changing it and

I cringe every time I read startups proudly writing about their unique compensation philosophies. Almost without exception, they have to end up changing it and ending up with typical corporate structures. Because there is a reason for them. Because all employees are not equal. Because some people put in much more work than others. Would be a huge red flag for me, it's typically a special type of arrogance leading people to believe it's not enough to build something new, they also are special enough to re-invent the wheel on every organizational aspect. In a sense I suspect there is a deep immaturity: Not wanting to deal with the realities of having to treat people differently, of struggling to figure out how to reward high performers, how to allocate finite resources. This is then justified in hindsight by coming up with some nonsense like: 'Some will say that this doesn’t offer a career ladder. Uniform compensation causes us to ask some deeper questions: namely, what is a career ladder, anyway? To me, the true objective for all of us should be to always be taking on new challenges — to be unafraid to learn and develop.' This literally does not mean anything. It's just handwaving around not wanting to deal with employee issues. Stay way.