Hot answers tagged salary
16
What we did in our startup was pick "official" salaries for the positions we were in as if we were profitable (i.e. like the fairly senior engineers we were at our old companies, but with a salary boost to reflect that we were also principals in the company). But since we had no money, we deferred the founders' salaries for a while, then after we got ...
15
In general, a good source for competitive salary data is salary.com, but they don't tend to break it out by mobile developer vs. "normal" developer.
A reliable developer with at least one year of experience generally could expect to make a full time salary in the $80,000 - $100,000 range. For Silicon Valley, add $10,000 or so. For nowhereville or Phoenix, ...
14
Just wanted to give you couple of things to consider:
Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose (been with startups for 12+ yrs, if you tell me it is not constant gamble, I will call you blind)
Valuations are fantasy. One day the company could be "worth" $4MM, next day - $0.
Treat options like a bonus. If you can't live on the base salary, go find another ...
12
I made a living a few years ago by fixing websites that offshore developers have created.
I'm not saying that offshore developers are bad developers. Communication and the difference in mentality creates a huge chasm between US and abroad.
You can outsource website design, graphics etc but for serious programming I would suggest to look for a good ...
11
A strategy that has worked well for us is to recruit fresh university graduates who are looking for their first job. Finding clever people that get stuff done. These people had a chance to grow with the company and they didn't come with bad habits.
Decent company culture doesn't offset a huge decrease in salary, but it does help to attract and retain ...
10
Shares do not equal salary. Typically, the investor trades shares for cash, and from that cash development, operating expenses and salaries get distributed. Of course, the investor needs to agree to the salaries (can't immediately distribute all the proceeds to salary!) - and in this case, the investor has majority ownership so he gets to state what is ...
9
I worked for a mid-sized company (approximately 300 employees) that emulated the Government pay scales and classifications. Each year, a cost of living adjustment was applied, and a new scale was published. Everyone received a copy.
You knew how much your boss made, how much your co-workers made and life was good, to be quite honest. It helped to distribute ...
9
SALARY
In Silicon Valley or New York, base salary around $80,000 - $100,000. Look at Salary.com, figure out the median salary for your position in your market, then subtract 10% because it's a startup and you're getting equity.
EQUITY
As far as equity, anywhere from 0.3% to 1.5% would make sense, depending on:
the number of people that they are planning ...
9
So if you apply your idea throughout your company, will you choose to under pay or over pay your taxes? Will you pay too much or too little for office space?
Are you seriously saying you will interview potential employees, come up with a salary and then make it lower or higher? Here's what will happen:
If the pay is lower than normal- you will miss out on ...
8
In my experience, offshore developers work if you have a highly technical person in the states that can feed them detailed specs and review their work on a regular basis. You can expect to pay between $15-$20 per hour per developer. I've worked with a company called EffectiveSoft (based on Minsk, Belarus), but there are several others to choose from.
I ...
8
Most intelligent angels and VC's will be willing to pay you a market salary for the function you perform; but it's all negotiable.
It's not unusual for an Angel/VC to tie the level and actual payment of salary to a series of milestones like the completion of a prototype or the acquisition of the first x number of customers.
From a VC's perspective, ...
7
It seems to me like the simple answer is... it depends.
You should pay yourself if:
Your company is generating enough cash to!
You're funded and have properly set salary expecations
You're not going to run out of money by doing so
You should NOT pay yourself if:
Your salary will put you out of business
If you believe your longterm model is sustainable ...
6
(Bear in mind, this comes from an entrepreneur who hasn't yet taken a salary from his start-up.)
You need to calculate two things:
Of all the part-time workers on this project, which one would benefit the company the most if he/she went full-time? (rank everyone from most to least)
Of all the part-time workers on this project, which one of them could ...
6
You would pay them out of the money the investor gives you. I wouldn't recommend increasing number of shares because it puts bad strains on the investor relationship, and makes it seem like you didn't plan well. One question though with 5 partners, why do you need staff before you're earning profits? Can't you bootstrap it yourself until you start generating ...
5
It is most common for a self funded startup to remain a sole proprietor until the business is established, substantially profitable and/or incurring significant liability. A good tax accountant will help you know when it makes sense to incorporate.
As a sole proprietor the company is merely a dba so you are not an employee and therefore there is no payroll. ...
5
I prefer the company won't tell, but employees are free to tell. I.e. the company will not publicize salaries, but employees are free to discuss this between themselves on an individual basis, if they want to.
I have worked for companies who forbade employees to tell others their salary. I always felt that was a cowardly middle-management strategy to hide ...
5
I'm a believer in the keep salary private and forbid employees from discussing it rule. Compensation can be a very complicated animal, and most employees will not understand the reasoning as to why their peers - who have the same years experience, the same four-year degree, and the same skill level - making different money than they do.
And even if they do ...
5
Startups are risky. They attract a certain kind of talent - those that aren't risk-averse and are happy to take a bit of a gamble. The job is less secure than with an established company (not that any job is secure these days - it's all relative), and probably pays less as well.
Many startups will offset the reduced pay by offering share-options. Not ...
5
Based on 20+ years recruiting technical and executive talent, mostly for startups, the biggest reason people join a startup as opposed to a Facebook, Google, or Oracle is a function of their tolerance for risk and a deeply subjective understanding of what they desire in their job. That desire usually boils down to the real culture, and culture boils down to ...
5
A 20% - 30% commission for outside sales reps is reasonable. HOWEVER, they typically will not sell a solution until it is highly replicatable. You and your inside sales folks will have to "figure it out", resolve common objections, etc. I would be very wary of an independent rep's ability to perform missionary sales - I have never seen it happen.
I have run ...
5
Now I feel it's my turn to step up. I don't care if I have to work 80 hours per week writing FORTRAN at a hedge fund, if my wife can stay home and raise our kids, it'll be worth the pain.
So your wife had been doing the financial heavy lifting for years so you could do something that was important to you personally. And now you want to volunteer to do ...
5
In this case to award employees company stock you will have to:
Create more stock belonging to the company that it can award
Have each current shareholder return some of their stock to the company
Both of these ideas dilute the current shareholders. You can, of course pay employees out of the company's profits and/or investment money.
5
I would expect them to pay about 80k. Stock is a red herring.
First off there is a 90% chance that it is worth 0 dollars in the long run.
Second unless they are giving you stock regularly then stock is a sign on bonus not pay.
Third whatever you agree the stock to be worth, consider you won't be able to sell that stock for several years. Think of ...
5
Equity means shares. I'll start from the beginning.
A share is basically a document saying that you are a partial owner of a company. The more shares you have in the company the more of it you own. Owning shares makes you a shareholder. You make money from your shares from:
Receiving a per-share dividend that is paid by the company at regular ...
5
What you are describing is a partnership type of relationship which is a bit similar to that of a Law firm or a consultancy firm (at least the freelance part is).
This type of companies usually have a hierarchical compensation structure when it comes to revenue splitting and positions. The titles and roles may vary a bit but the basic principles should ...
5
I currently work for a regional IT services firm in the Midwest. Until three years ago we had five employees (all technicians). Our operations averaged a 46% bill-out which means we paid 2.17 technician hours for each hour we billed clients. Our technicians averaged 22 hours onsite with clients per week. Our technicians averaged wage was $13.40/hr and ...
4
The only way this can be even close to OK is if you're working 10 hours a week or less. If you're working full time or close to it, and have been working there for three years, and have accumulated a good skill set, they should raise your salary by quite a bit.
I've been in a similar situation where I hired a talented guy that has just graduated from high ...
4
Do you consider him as vital as you are? Would you still be in business without him? If so - equity for sure.
Otherwise, salary with a small equity and three year vesting. The idea being that he's got an incitement to stay on for a longer run, with the vesting forcing him to sell the stock back to you if he leaves early. That's pretty standard anyway.
4
Details will vary country-to-country, even within EU member states.
Here's the break-down:
Gross pay
That's the headline 'salary' figure. It's what you'd apparently receive in cash if the Government opted out of income-related taxes.
Statutory deductions
These are specific, itemised deductions, where you are contributing to the common pot for something. ...
4
Here is my list
Get equity in the company
Trust in project successful outcome
Team and social quality of working context
Benefit of a new experience growing my own value
Truly talented people, or potentially talented, will value these as much, if not more, as a good salary. In fact people only concerned about salary are not a good match for a startup. ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
