4 ms·

The reason YC companies are offering salaries like that is because people accept them. If people didn't accept them, they would offer higher salaries. They'd

The reason YC companies are offering salaries like that is because people accept them. If people didn't accept them, they would offer higher salaries. They'd have to. And if people are accepting those salaries, then that's fundamentally what the position is worth. Why would they offer more money? There's no such thing as a salary floor for a position. There's a salary floor for a specific developer. It's based entirely on what that developer is willing to accept.

kasey_junk 12y ago
I completely agree with your market forces answer to the salary compensation numbers. So it's not interesting why YC companies are offering salaries like that, rather its more interesting to wonder why they are willing to accept the developers salaries like that filter for. The developers who would accept those salaries either are a) worth less than the median salary b) don't know their value in the industry c) are naive about the true value of the equity part of the compensation or d) are happy to not maximize their earnings. All of those filters seem to bias towards inexperienced developers without others who rely on their income (ie young developers from relatively financially stable backgrounds) or those who have no other choices. So that seems to imply one or more of the following: - software is the first craft ever where experience does not improve performance. - writing good software is not important. - neither is long term team cohesion, as that is very difficult to maintain in the face of chronic underpayment. So the most likely thing this implies, is that the successes YC companies are shooting for on not predicated on writing long term sustainable good software. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. But I worry that when that isn't explicit it has negative ramifications in environments where writing good software is important for success. If people confuse success as a YC company with success at writing good software they may take the wrong lessons away.
- deleted 12y ago
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- DenisM 12y ago
  Before you start your own first startup you wold do well to work for someone else's. Learn on their mistakes, on their dime, make connections while you can. It's far more expensive to do it all on your own dime.
- deleted 12y ago
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danmaz74 12y ago
The point is: are those who accept those salaries good enough? The first hires at a startup that does something technically challenging can be very important for the startup success.
- echoless 12y ago
  Perhaps they are good enough for the stage the company is in. Not all startups need highly-skilled developers when all they're doing is build CRUD apps.
bendmorris 12y ago
>The reason YC companies are offering salaries like that is because people accept them. But they've also been claiming that they're not getting enough qualified applicants and positions are going unfilled, which suggests that either there truly are not enough engineers to go around, or these salaries aren't high enough to attract them.
bhayden 12y ago
If someone accepts a position for less than their worth, that's a market inefficiency, not what the position is actually worth.

kasey_junk 12y ago

I completely agree with your market forces answer to the salary compensation numbers. So it's not interesting why YC companies are offering salaries like that, rather its more interesting to wonder why they are willing to accept the developers salaries like that filter for. The developers who would accept those salaries either are a) worth less than the median salary b) don't know their value in the industry c) are naive about the true value of the equity part of the compensation or d) are happy to not maximize their earnings. All of those filters seem to bias towards inexperienced developers without others who rely on their income (ie young developers from relatively financially stable backgrounds) or those who have no other choices. So that seems to imply one or more of the following: - software is the first craft ever where experience does not improve performance. - writing good software is not important. - neither is long term team cohesion, as that is very difficult to maintain in the face of chronic underpayment. So the most likely thing this implies, is that the successes YC companies are shooting for on not predicated on writing long term sustainable good software. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. But I worry that when that isn't explicit it has negative ramifications in environments where writing good software is important for success. If people confuse success as a YC company with success at writing good software they may take the wrong lessons away.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
DenisM 12y ago
Before you start your own first startup you wold do well to work for someone else's. Learn on their mistakes, on their dime, make connections while you can. It's far more expensive to do it all on your own dime.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

danmaz74 12y ago

The point is: are those who accept those salaries good enough? The first hires at a startup that does something technically challenging can be very important for the startup success.

echoless 12y ago
Perhaps they are good enough for the stage the company is in. Not all startups need highly-skilled developers when all they're doing is build CRUD apps.

bendmorris 12y ago

>The reason YC companies are offering salaries like that is because people accept them. But they've also been claiming that they're not getting enough qualified applicants and positions are going unfilled, which suggests that either there truly are not enough engineers to go around, or these salaries aren't high enough to attract them.

bhayden 12y ago

If someone accepts a position for less than their worth, that's a market inefficiency, not what the position is actually worth.