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Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

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Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not addressing the most important point: Why do you want a CEO of a company who has investors' money, employee's livelihoods and the possibility to improve the world living with roommates, cooking his/her own food to save money, and wasting time when that CEO could be 100% focused on the business? I'm not advocating we pay him/her $500,000/year, but $150,000 is very fair.

My criticism is with people who say 150k is too little. I think it's a fair ceiling.

Understood. In most cases that is more than enough, I could imagine scenarios where it wouldn't be.

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#62
I think it makes more sense to say something flexible like, "startup CEOs should not make more than 2x their market salary". I say 2x because they might be working twice as many hours. I'm not saying they should get 2x, because that's an argument about whether they should be working harder for equity or for salary, but I think 2x market salary is a reasonable, hard to argue with cap.

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#63
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people with kids and mortgages get by on less than 150k. If you really can't make ends meet on 150k you've overextended yourself.

"Most people with kids and mortgages get by on less than 150k" Phil. I will say this the nicest way I can. I'd like to know where you are getting your info from? By your resume you are 4 years out of college. I'm a bit older and have 2 children, one in college as well as obviously many friends with children in college. My wife has 200k in Medical school debt to pay off. 150k is a nice salary, no doubt. But to say "If…

I don't know why you're making this personal, Larry. If it's such a struggle for you to be civil with me and discuss the facts rather than dragging our respective life histories into the conversation, you should find a better hobby than Hacker News.

Statistically, the median income for a family in Mountain View, California in 2007 was $105,079. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_View,_California#Demog...) (This is higher than San Francisco, and MTV also includes more families with children, which is why I've chosen it as a basis of comparison.) Compare that to a individual income of roughly half again as much. Unless you're asserting that more than 50% of Mountain View families are struggling to get by, you have to admit that someone who can't make ends meet on 150k has an unusually high level of financial commitment. Such a person is unlikely to be a startup CEO, especially since most startups fail and leave their employees suddenly unemployed.

I'd rather not get into your personal business, so let's speak more generally. Medical school is expensive and leaves one with a lot of debt, but unless you've made a horrible mistake, it also makes you a physician, who presumably can earn enough income to cover that debt. If not, medical school is a terrible investment. But in Mountain View, at least, the average physician apparently earns $131,000 a year (http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Physician-l-Mountain-View,-CA...), which means our hypothetical CEO/doctor couple has a combined income of $281,000, about 2 and 2/3 times the median. I don't know anything about you or your friends, and I don't really care to because it's not a personal argument despite your constant desire to make it so, but if being unable to make ends meet on almost three times the median family income in your town isn't overextending yourself, what is?

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#64
post #20
post #5

"...Thiel believes that a CEO should not be paying themselves more than $150,000, even after a Series A investment. Anything above that shows a lack of motivation to the company and to the future success of the company." Anything above? Really? This assumes a few things. First that the cost of living is the same for any CEO. A CEO at a startup in NYC or SV has considerably higher cost of living than a CEO located in…

yeah you'd think they'd want the CEO to be able to 100% focus on their startup If for example the CEO's wife lost her job...$150K is suddenly not that much for a family. Do you really want your CEO to do consulting on the side to pay the bills instead of focusing on the startup?

What if the CEO lost his job? (That's the typical outcome for funded startups--they fail, and everyone involved loses their jobs.) If you can't handle that, you need a more reliable career than "startup CEO".

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#65
post #7

Actually the 1$ salary is a well known tax dodge - its a aggressive way of avoiding income tax - everyone will have there own take on what this says about them as an individual.

It's not exactly a "tax dodge". It's a consequence of the fact that capital gains taxes are lower than the income tax. It's a problem with the game, not the players.

Well as a small shareholder/investor id be realy realy Pissed off if the IRS clamps down on my valid lower CGT just because some billionare CEO is taking the piss to be blunt.

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#66
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible to live with a baby in 1br apartment, a lot of people do it in Manhattan. The real problems start later, with preschools, kindergartens etc.

That preschool shit does sound terrifying. My question is: why? Are NYC public schools really that bad? (I have no idea, but I thought there were some good districts.) Or is the insanity just a product of it being hard to get them into top colleges coming from New York and not being prep? Because there's a solution, which is to have them move to Montana during their senior year.

There are no public preschools in New York for middle class. The private ones are very expensive and competitive to get into.

AFAIK, there are good public elementary schools. Middle and high schools are much worse if you don't get into a Gifted & Talented program.

Re: Peter Thiel: Startup CEO Salaries Shouldn’t Be Above $150,000

#67
I'm blow away by the reactions here. It's as if everybody expects to make a lot of money while taking a lot of risks with other people's money. This isn't wall street ;o This is business and hard work.

You get paid when your business is successful and you are acquired. At least that's how VC's see it.

If you don't go to bed with VC's or external investors you can pay yourself whatever you want.

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