
Ask HN: How much do you make at a startup? - startupsalaries
I recently joined an early-stage startup and while I feel like I come out of negotiations with a fair compensation package, I was sorely disappointed by the lack of public information on how much startup employees can expect to make. While there was some information (e.g., the Andreesen Horowitz salary leak), most of it was outdated, incomplete, or not clearly from a reliable source.<p>In an effort to make this more transparent for others in a similar situation, I’m hoping to collect and publicize compensation details from current startup employees. If you currently work at a startup, please fill out the attached form in as much detail as you can and feel comfortable with. Note that while the questions are somewhat targeted at US-based employees because that’s what I’m most familiar with, this information should be equally valuable for other locations and I encourage those working elsewhere to fill out the form and suggest changes&#x2F;questions that would make this information more relevant for you.<p>The responses to this form are available at the second link, and please feel free to comment with suggestions of other questions to add!<p>Survey:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forms.gle&#x2F;imnTvSV35UjY5EC28<p>Results:
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;spreadsheets&#x2F;d&#x2F;1ZX_bcVE9bbuFbz20N4fMbFYVgltxsVeFpQ7gXlJpBrI&#x2F;edit?usp=sharing
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avl999
The developer at timestamp "10/21/2019 10:24:14" with 10 years of experience
making $85,000 in the US with 0 equity, can you please explain yours
situation? ;)

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rinchik
To be honest, "10 years of experience" in this industry means nothing.

I have worked with (and interviewed) A LOT of devs with 10-15 years of
experience who can't do a basic fizz-buzz (I'm exaggerating, of course, but
really, really weak devs who due to whatever reason didn't bother to improve
their skills past what they learned in school in 1980s).

Even $60,000 can be acceptable for a dev with "15 years of experience", if his
skills are worth $60,000.

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jesterson
That's so true. Diploma, years of experience, experience itself doesn't mean
anything. I've interviewed a lot of people who came to interview with a pile
of of diplomas and recommendations and were quite weak and hired people
without prestigious education and extensive experience who produced amazing
results.

People tend to collect toys like diplomas, certificates, etc... I'd probably
be downvoted, but imo correlation between actual skills and those toys is
getting weaker lately.

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csorrell
to be honest, I think this has more to do with the way a lot of companies
interview. I was probably a much stronger interviewee immediately after
graduating college than I am now after having worked in the field for half a
decade. I'm a much more skilled developer now though. I don't read textbooks
in my free time, so if I end up in an interview where they are asking me
textbook questions I'm not going to do as well. I had an interview recently
for a senior dev role and they were asking me things like, "what are the 4
pillars of OOP?", and I thought to myself, "Off the top of my head, IDK, but
it sounds like something I probably learned in school."

edit: I guess you're more so comparing people with degrees vs. those without
so my response would better fit under the parent comment. basically all I'm
saying is yes, 10 years experience does mean something in this field, but if
your interview style isn't picking up on that then your interview process is
broken.

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kirubakaran
Clickable links:

Survey:
[https://forms.gle/imnTvSV35UjY5EC28](https://forms.gle/imnTvSV35UjY5EC28)

Results:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZX_bcVE9bbuFbz20N4fM...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZX_bcVE9bbuFbz20N4fMbFYVgltxsVeFpQ7gXlJpBrI/edit?usp=sharing)

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abhinuvpitale
It would be great if someone would do some quick data analysis on this.

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zamadatix
Older version of salary survey:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a1Df6dg2Pby1UoNlZU2l...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a1Df6dg2Pby1UoNlZU2l0FEykKsQKttu7O6q7iQd2bU)

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NoNameProvided
I am never sure, when it's not explicitly stated, so can somebody clarify it
for me? These are gross or net annual base salaries? If gross, then what how
much taxation is on it usually in the US? (As the majority of responses comes
from the US currently)

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deedubaya
Gross. Probably 20-35% effective tax rate combined federal and state. State
income taxes vary from state to state.

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person_of_color
Does it include 401K?

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jessicapssilva
At Codacy, we have a public salary calculator on our careers page:
[https://www.codacy.com/careers](https://www.codacy.com/careers)

As well as a blog post with the detailed process:
[https://www.codacy.com/blog/open-salary-transparency-
culture...](https://www.codacy.com/blog/open-salary-transparency-
culture/?utm_source=landing_page)

Check it out!

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throwaway_45
According to your calc An intermediate level engineer in sf makes more than a
director level in Europe.

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gshdg
That’s not shocking.

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jammygit
No options for Canadians

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skellera
This is somewhat related but does anyone know what the market rate for a mid
level backend services dev in Seattle is? I’m looking but it’s a little hard
to find a range.

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EvanWard97
Thanks for doing this!

