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Comment by tlogan | Hacker News Reader

I disagree because it is not true all startups offer less than market-base salary.

If a startup has VC backing then there is absolutely no reason for the startup to offer less than market salary. If a startup does not have money to pay employees then founders should raise more. Or sell more. Employees are not VCs. Simple. Also look this way: if start up is not offering market salary, then think this way: how that startup is going to attract talent from established companies (whose expertise are needed if that startup wants to become big).

On the other hand, If a startup has no VC backing and you are offered less than market salary you are then you should act as investor / co-founder. That will be definitely less money but it can be a great experience: money is not everything.

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You bring up a good and interesting point.

From what I've seen, startups almost always pay less than market, but they make up for it in four different ways:

1. Quality of life and work: employees at startups get to touch more things, work on more exciting projects, eat free food, play ping pong, be a part of a tight-knit culture, etc. A lot of people highly value this, and I don't blame them!

2. Employees mistakenly overestimating the value of their options, their probability of success, and the uniqueness of the startup culture.

3. Related to both #1 and #2, hiring employees that don't care about money and/or haven't taken finance 101.

4. Related to #1, #2, and #3: hiring employees that are so excited about the startup that they don't care about the deal they're getting.

I've NEVER seen a good engineer get a better offer at a startup than he/she would've gotten at a large company, but it's certainly possible.

> 1. Quality of life and work: employees at startups get to touch more things, work on more exciting projects, eat free food, play ping pong, be a part of a tight-knit culture, etc. A lot of people highly value this, and I don't blame them!

It's not worth 10s of thousands of dollars a year when you can get a lot of that (or all it) at a company that will pay you more.

>If a startup does not have money to pay employees then founders should raise more.

> then think this way: how that startup is going to attract talent from established companies (whose expertise are needed if that startup wants to become big).

THANK YOU so much for saying this

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