<story><title>Big Tech Company Salaries Are Hurting Startups</title><url>http://thestartupconference.com/2017/03/25/the-350k-google-salary-is-hurting-startups/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bla2</author><text>Sounds like the market is telling startups that early engineers are worth more than 0.1% of stock options.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mring33621</author><text>Yes.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m an older, successful dev in Chicago. I recently corresponded w&amp;#x2F; a local startup CEO on linkedin. My skillset seemed to be a good fit for the role, but their stated top salary would be a 20K pay cut for me. So I ran a quick estimate, based on expected exit and expected dilution figures that I found on the internet (I know, grain of salt...), added a risk premium for myself, and found that I would want about 7% equity, in order to be interested. They said no, of course.&lt;p&gt;My point is that (some) startups can&amp;#x27;t or won&amp;#x27;t pay for the technical skills they want. And that&amp;#x27;s their problem, not ours.</text></comment>
<story><title>Big Tech Company Salaries Are Hurting Startups</title><url>http://thestartupconference.com/2017/03/25/the-350k-google-salary-is-hurting-startups/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bla2</author><text>Sounds like the market is telling startups that early engineers are worth more than 0.1% of stock options.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>thedevil</author><text>I had more of a financial background before becoming a software engineer.  I was shocked when I found out &amp;quot;equity&amp;quot; given to early engineers is so puny.&lt;p&gt;Why would someone work long hours for low pay with higher risk for 0.1% of high-risk small business?</text></comment>