Ask HN: How close to market rate do engineers get paid, post series-b? - thedappler
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poof131
You should get a market rate salary post series-B or damn close in my opinion.
This is the round where founders can take money off the table, making them
millionaires. If they take money off the table but tell you that you should
take less then market, you are getting taken advantage of. At a large company,
with stock and bonus you could be getting $100k more per year. Your startup
stock should cover this and more since you are taking a risk it is worth
nothing in the end. Your base salary should match what you would get
elsewhere. Founders take money off the table so they can focus on building the
company and not worry about finances. There’s no reason employees shouldn’t be
treated the same way.

How would you like working at a place like Secret for a discount only to find
out 18 months before shutting down the founders each made 3 million.[1] Don’t
take a below market salary at this point. There’s enough money the company can
afford to pay market. If the founders can make millions they can afford to pay
you the wage you deserve. Even post series-A I feel should be close to market,
since the company just raised millions. Seed can be lower, but you should have
a guarantee that it goes up at the next funding round. There’s a lot of money
in the market and a lot of bad founders, so don’t make personal sacrifices to
make others rich. If you want a mission, join the Peace Corp. Startups are
business, otherwise they would be incorporated as non-profits.

1\. [http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founders-
pocket-6-mill...](http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-founders-
pocket-6-million-in-25-million-fundraise-2014-7)

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jasonkester
Ah, a trick question.

Employees should _always_ negotiate to be paid their market rate, regardless
of the stage of the company. Founders can pay themselves as little as they
like, but once they start hiring people they need to actually pay those people
to work for them. Stock options (on top of that market rate) and other things
are a nice way of offsetting the risk that the company will go away in a
matter of months, but never make the mistake of trading away salary for them.

Doing otherwise is a combination of betting on other people's lottery tickets
and simply being taken advantage of.

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hacknat
I agree with jasonkester. Unless you are a very early employee getting an out-
sized amount of equity (>2%) then you should be damn close to market from the
beginning. Of course startups pay less, but more than 10% off market is
terrible. Even early employees should be brought up to market very quickly
once funding happens. If you google it, you'll find the consensus is that
founders can pay themselves market after series A. You better be getting
market too.

The best way to get a raise post funding round as an employee is to go in guns
blazing in your next salary/performance review. Make sure to keep a list of
your accomplishments, tie them to the revenue of the company, outline what
you're excited about in the coming year, and print out a payscale report of
how under market you are and say something like, "I'm getting a bit
demoralized by how under market I am. It will be a load off my mind and make
it much easier for me to stay motivated for all that we have ahead if this can
get corrected."

If you are invaluable to them you will receive the raise. If you're not, then
you're getting the better end of the deal and you should look for a job where
you can be invaluable. If you are invaluable and they give you a shitty raise,
you can be more explicit with them, but it's likely that you'll need to job
hop to get what you want.

I got a 30% raise doing what I just outlined.

