As a manger myself, I don't think OP is proud of underpaying his team. We fight management for more salary for sure. At the end we are employee ourselves as we

As a manger myself, I don't think OP is proud of underpaying his team. We fight management for more salary for sure. At the end we are employee ourselves as well. But even at a medium size company, there are multiple layers even at an executive level you won't be able to talk to, for example, the board or VC. What I believe OP trying to say here is that, despite all these, he did the best he can to maintain his relationship with his team, and motivate the best he can, and succeeded.