Preparing our first engineering hires after bootstrapping for 18 months. The community’s compensation dashboard shows most founder CEOs in our space take 25-40% less cash than their CTOs pre-Series A. How have others navigated this transparency? Did you share benchmark data directly with candidates, or use it as internal guidance? Worried about retention if they see my salary multiple times theirs.
shared the data once. big mistake. now every standup becomes ‘why do YOU get healthcare and WE dont.’ use benchmarks to cap their ask, never justify your cut. equity is monopoly money anyway – focus on their cash comp versus market.
2023 data shows startups disclosing founder compensation during hiring saw 31% lower engineer attrition in the first year. However, those tying equity grants to milestone-based benchmarks secured 2.3x more commit volume. Recommendation: Share aggregate industry data but individualize packages based on liquidation preferences.
Frame it as strategic alignment: “Here’s how our compensation structure maps to validated market data, designed to ensure we reward impact as we scale.” I advise founders to disclose their salary only after establishing clear performance metrics for the role, using the dashboard’s stage-filtered view to set expectations.