Should you take that director-level offer at a startup worth $30 million or $300 million?
When it comes to base salary, the gap might not be as large as you expect.
Look at a director in Data Science, for instance. At a startup worth $30 million, the base salary for that position is currently around $188,000. At a much larger company worth $300M, the salary starts at $215,000.
That's a solid 14.3% jump! But 14% is not a chasm.
There are certain functions like Marketing or Operations where the gap is higher, but on the whole candidates should expect between a 15%-20% boost in base for a 10x jump in company valuation.
BTW - a $30M company is likely ~Seed or Series A while a $300M valuation is around Series C-D.
𝗕𝘂 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆?
On the one hand, equity grants at the larger company will be much smaller. Probably something like 75% less equity (expressed as a percentage of total diluted shares) than the offer from the $30M company.
On the other hand, the equity from the $300M scale-up is much more likely to end up resulting in some value, as the equity from the small company remains at high risk of becoming a zero.
Is the comfort of a 20% salary increase worth the decreased equity? Is the equity risk level at the small company too much for your risk appetite?
Maybe the biggest point is that the content of the role is likely very different.
𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝘁 $𝟯𝟬𝗠 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆: in the weeds every day building the function. Lots of IC work. Dips toes into all sorts of problems and projects.
𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝘁 $𝟯𝟬𝟬𝗠 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆: much more about managing teams, communicating cross-functionally, managing up, generally speaking.
No right answer! Everyone has different risk tolerance, need for current cash, etc.
Startup comp introduces all sorts of questions in a way that compensation at Big Tech mostly avoids. Just another hurdle that great founders need to clear as they attract the best talent to their startups.
#startups #salary #equity #founders #startupjobs
Read our full report on salary, equity, and hiring across US startups here: https://lnkd.in/dqvAt6Tv
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