

Peter Thiel: Best Predictor of Startup Success Is Low CEO Pay [2008] - staunch
http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/08/peter-thiel-best-predictor-of-startup-success-is-low-ceo-pay/

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spking
$100k - $125k is not a ton if you live in an area like San Francisco, LA or
NYC, especially if you have dependents. I've often thought about raising $500K
instead of $1.5M, and relocating the team to a place like Austin, TX, where
the founders (including the CEO) could each live comfortably on $50K or so a
year.

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hugh3
NB. Not actually backed up by any data, just happens to be Peter Thiel's own
personal opinion.

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moxiemk1
Exactly. I was seriously hoping this article would have some charts and real
statistical analysis attached.

When the claim could trivially be perfected with data analysis, it takes a
high opinion of oneself to loudly proclaim an opinion instead of doing the
work.

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jheriko
I've always been of the opinion that overpaying CEOs and top level management
has little or no benefit, despite it being the accepted norm, so its good to
see evidence of that in some data. :)

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ericd
It lets you keep the ones that could make more elsewhere... there's a
competitive market for the best CEOs, which is why they make what they do.

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hugh3
On the other hand, at the startup level a CEO is planning to get rich by his
stock options, not his salary. So if entertaining multiple offers he'll choose
whichever one he thinks he thinks he's more likely to turn into a billion-
dollar company, not whichever one offers him an extra $50K.

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ericd
I agree with you in the case of the hot CEOs at the aggressive VC-funded
startup level, it seemed like the parent of my first comment was referring to
really well paid CEOs, of which I don't think there are many to be found at
the startup level.

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ericd
The best predictor of Startup Success from the perspective of a VC, maybe. Not
all startups need to be built for an exit.

