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"Everyone paid same as CEO" seems great as a morale boost at a startup of 23 employees. Even if it's not a lot, startups are often not flush with extra cash and
by cat_plus_plus 4y ago
"Everyone paid same as CEO" seems great as a morale boost at a startup of 23 employees. Even if it's not a lot, startups are often not flush with extra cash and equity is the main incentive to join one rather than a tech giant. I like the mature "this may not scale and it doesn't have to for now" admission.
- AbrahamParangi 4y agoIf everyone was paid the same as the CEO, at many startups everyone would quit.
- toomuchtodo 4y agoFair, but perhaps they’d also work as hard as the CEO if they were paid the same and had equal preferred founder shares instead of common shares. Also, when was the last time you heard of employees with equity getting a secondary to take money off the table vs founders getting to do so? It’s not the disparity per se (because at some point, there is a demarc between the population willing to sleep on the floor and eat ramen for org success vs those not and a corresponding comp delta), but the disconnect between the disparity and the output expectations. Edit: I’m aware of the VC backed share structure. My thesis is if you want more ownership in your dream from your employees, give them more equitable ownership in the enterprise.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoHas this ever happened in real life?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- AbrahamParangi 4y agoIt is fairly common for CEOs at pre-scale startups to pay themselves just enough to live on.
- zamnos 4y agoTo be concrete, I've heard numbers like $50k being thrown around.
- nrp 4y agoWe’re trading anecdotes here, but in all of the Series A and earlier startups I’m familiar with, the Founder/CEO is the the lowest paid person in the company. I would assume that non-Founder CEOs being hired in would typically be the highest paid individuals though.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zamnos 4y agoThere are headlines where the CEO takes $1 in salary, but realistically those are few and far between, and the CEO is usually well compensated in stock options and company jet usage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-dollar_salary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-dollar_salary
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ivraatiems 4y ago"Everyone gets the same amount of equity as the CEO" would be a morale booster. "Everyone gets paid the same as the CEO" is at best a nice-to-have.
- addisonl 4y agoFor 99.9% of the population, being paid the same as the CEO is a moral booster.
- ivraatiems 4y agoThat's because 99.9% of the population work for a CEO making millions of dollars a year, not $191k at a startup.
- dragonwriter 4y ago95% of the population makes less than $191k, though.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago$191k is a HUGE wage for A LOT of people. If you're scoffing at that you need to realize you're living in a bubble. Outside of Silicon Valley that's even a huge wage for a dev.
- bb88 4y ago... But not in the bay area. It would make you comfortable, but not rich.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoYeah, but they are talking about 99+% of the population here, so I assume that's not just the bay area, or we're really in a bubble.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y ago
- rvnx 4y ago191'000 USD / yr "even if it's not a lot" ?
- selljamhere 4y agoI think they meant that, in general, startups are not able to compete purely on salary. I don't think they're saying that Oxide's salary is not a lot.
- armadsen 4y agoI’m a software engineer, live in an area with a way lower cost of living than the Bay Area, work for a company almost exactly the same size, and $191k would be a significant pay cut for me. It really isn’t a lot depending on your role, level of experience, etc, and that’s extra true for the Bay Area.
- sidlls 4y agoYou're an extreme outlier, then. Most Bay Area software salaries are going to cap out around $190k - $230k range, except at FAANG or FAANG-like companies.
- hdisllcn 4y agoI don’t think this is accurate (and it is not in my experience) levels.fyi puts the median salary for _juniors_ at 180k and the 90th percentile at 230k. The data is obviously imperfect but on average it’s fairly accurate. My personal experience also aligns with this. Senior is around 300-500k and Staff/Manager can get extremely silly.