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Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

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Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#31

Post by carterschonwald »

georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

THIS.

worrying about money means less time working. Less time thinking about how to engineer things nicely / solve high value problems. If you want great work from good people, compensate them well so they can FOCUS on what you've hired them to do.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#32

Post by photorized »

georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

This.

Worrying about money means thinking about side jobs, etc.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#33

Post by johnbellone »

ntomaino wrote: post #11
rayiner wrote: post #3

> If you offer too little compensation, you may not attract the talent that you need to be successful. But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders. > Salary is a measure of how much value one is adding to a company, and that information should not be a secret. > If companies are consistently payin…

Thanks for the feedback rayiner. My statement that paying people excessively can make them less hungry is something that has been observed through experience. I'm not saying that this is always the case, just that it happens and is something to be aware of. Sure, salary is a matter of supply and demand- which is why I'm advocating for more transparency so that all market participants can make decisions with more comp…

Did you pay them less and offer more equity?

I am not sure why your employees would be less 'hungry' if you're paying them more unless they feel like they don't have ownership in the product. Or maybe they just didn't jive well with the team.

Either way they are staffing problems - hire the right people and pay them what they are worth.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#34

Post by ttrreeww »

carterschonwald wrote: post #31
georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

THIS. worrying about money means less time working. Less time thinking about how to engineer things nicely / solve high value problems. If you want great work from good people, compensate them well so they can FOCUS on what you've hired them to do.

Pay them above market so they don't need to worry about making more elsewhere.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#35

Post by praptak »

georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

I have read about cats that if you need a mouser you should not worry about feeding it too much. Cats will catch mice even if well fed. Feeding it too little means it will start to scout for food far away from your place, thus catching mice elsewhere.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#36

Post by johnbellone »

georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

Anyone that is working for a startup should be invested in getting the best value out of the shareholders. This is usually the case because they themselves own a stake in the company in some form or another.

You should be paying your staff what they're worth and not short sell them because you're worried about them feeling "fat and happy." That's simply ridiculous.

If they themselves are not a shareholder then they should be working towards something. Is that a raise? Maybe that is equity? Whatever the incentive you can't just hire people and expect that they're going to live at the office without adequate compensation.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#37

Post by danielweber »

ttrreeww wrote: post #16

Last late stage VC company (which turns out to be run by psychopaths...): VP: 220k base (H-1B filing) Director (of what I forgot): 180k base (H-1B filing) Programming monkey: 15 year exp: 185k base 10 year: 150-160k base 3(?) year: 130k base (in demand specialty)

Geographic area matters a lot.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#38

Post by ttrreeww »

danielweber wrote: post #37
ttrreeww wrote: post #16

Last late stage VC company (which turns out to be run by psychopaths...): VP: 220k base (H-1B filing) Director (of what I forgot): 180k base (H-1B filing) Programming monkey: 15 year exp: 185k base 10 year: 150-160k base 3(?) year: 130k base (in demand specialty)

Geographic area matters a lot.

SV ;)

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#39

Post by nineteenturtles »

georgemcbay wrote: post #28

"But if you offer too much compensation, management and employees may begin to feel fat and happy and lose the motivation to maximize long-term value for shareholders." IMO (and while I can't speak to the management side of it), this displays a horrifying misunderstanding of the mindset of the technical people you want to hire and pay well. As an experienced and driven programmer, you hire me and pay me well so that…

The salaries he listed were for executives, not coders.

If you pay your CEO too much more than $260k, there might be a risk that he/she start worrying about keeping the job (and the high salary) more than growing the company.

Re: Salary at Venture-Backed Companies

#40

Post by bane »

ttrreeww wrote: post #16

Last late stage VC company (which turns out to be run by psychopaths...): VP: 220k base (H-1B filing) Director (of what I forgot): 180k base (H-1B filing) Programming monkey: 15 year exp: 185k base 10 year: 150-160k base 3(?) year: 130k base (in demand specialty)

where was this at?
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