Weekly Compensation Blog

While we like to stay away from the word *should*, the real question is – how does executive equity change as a company raises capital? This week, we’re continuing our deep dive to answer your frequently asked compensation questions. Using the comp planning tool from the Thelander Platform, (a hybrid of our dataset and consulting resources, now off the shelf), we’re looking at how equity changes for a CEO as they raise capital. So, how does it change? What does this mean for you and your team? How do you plan ahead? If you’re a CEO raising capital here are

A few weeks ago, we read an a16z newsletter on the “7 hires a hardware startup needs to get right” that outlined the seven functions (besides engineering) that determines whether a “great product ever becomes a great business.” Which include: Manufacturing, Deployments, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales, Policy and Marketing. And while the piece described how to find the right person, and how to know when you’ve found the right person, they didn’t touch on what it takes to compensate those roles. That’s where we come in. While we’re looking at data for all types of private companies – including hardware and tech

The real inflection point in biotech CEO compensation isn’t between early and late clinical trials. It’s the leap from pre-clinical to clinical. In this data drop, pulled directly from the Thelander Platform, we looked at how median total cash, founder and non-founder equity changes across biotech stages of development. Pre-Clinical → ClinicalMedian total cash: $329,067 → $447,500Median total founder equity: 16.00% → 9.00%Median non-founder equity: Steady at 5.00% Clinical Phase I → Phase II/IIIMedian total cash: $452,500 → $445,720Median total founder equity: 7.99% → 9.90%Median non-founder equity: 5.00% → 4.74% The takeaway? CEO total cash jumps significantly between the pre-clinical

As venture rounds get bigger and the sub-$5M round disappears (PitchBook), it’s changed the way that companies recruit and retain talent – and the YoY compensation data is changing as a result. Take Operations Managers at companies that have raised less than $15 Million. Median total cash compensation has increased from $87,500 in 2022 to $115,000 in 2026 – a 31% increase. At the 75th percentile, total cash has grown from $120,000 to $140,554 over the same period. Non-founder equity has steadily trended up from 0.050% in 2022 to a peak of 0.175% in 2025 and holding there into 2026.

Global M&A hit a historic milestone in Q1 2026. According to PitchBook, “total deal value reaching an estimated $1.6 trillion—a new quarterly record—up 50.6% YoY despite a backdrop of trade policy uncertainty, geopolitical tension, and AI-driven disruption risk.” North America led the way, and “liquidity remains abundant with buyers and sellers finding terms.” With M&A activity at record levels, one of the most important things to have in place before a transaction are your liquidation preferences. Liquidation Preferences Whether preferred stockholders receive a liquidation preference plus a pro-rata share determines the portion of the proceeds remaining for founders and employees,

Last week, Katherine Bindley from The Wall Street Journal published an article on “The Tech Jobs That Are Safe From AI.” She reported that senior IT and computer science job postings are up YoY – while entry level postings are down – which motivated us to look whether the same was true for compensation at tech startups. Using the year-over-year compensation trend dataset on the Thelander Platform, we looked at tech startups who have raised less than $50 million. Here’s what the data told us: Median total cash for entry-level (associate) software engineers has stayed steady since 2022 – hovering

In Carta‘s State of Startup Compensation Report, they said that “the dominance of AI is shaping how founders build and compensate their teams.” AI equity compensation is rising — but is it rising equally across every industry? In Michael Bodley‘s article digging into the report, he noted that initial equity grants for individual contributors on Carta have grown by nearly 11% over the past two years, while median salaries rose 6.4%. That motivated us to look at our own life science and tech data to see if the AI equity premium was hitting every industry the same way. And it’s

With the slew of new data that came out of the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor r this week, startup option pool by valuation has been on our mind. So, we dug into the Thelander Option Pool Report (available on the Thelander Platform) to see how rising valuations changed the makeup of the option pool between founders, employees and investors (that data drop is coming tomorrow). Valuations are rising, especially for top-tier startups, but it’s important for companies at all levels to understand how valuation relates to compensation. Valuations primarily affect compensation by determining the value of the shares held by founders

Independent board members bring industry expertise and valuable networks to the table — and attracting the right ones means knowing what the market pays. So, how does private company non-investor board member compensation actually work? Is it a mix of cash and equity? According to Thelander, yes. And does it change as companies grow? Again, yes. Significantly. What the Data Is Actually Saying The overall picture:  The financing stage story is where it gets really interesting: The through line: As companies raise more capital, they shift from pure one-time equity toward cash and equity combinations. The board formalizes compensation in lock-step

One of our most frequently asked questions is about founder shares — specifically, what’s the difference between founder shares and equity granted for current job?In this week’s PC Data Drop, we’re giving you the answer using a real-time CEO data table pulled directly from the Thelander platform — filtered for companies with $50M–$89.9M in total financing. — % Fully Diluted Share Non-Founder: The percent of fully diluted shares granted to a non-founder CEO as part of their total compensation package. The median here is 5.0%.— % Fully Diluted Shares Founder: Percent of fully diluted shares awarded for being a founder. The median is 6.0%.— %

CMO compensation at private companies is climbing as the role becomes one of the most competitive executive searches in life science. What’s a trending role for private life science companies right now? CMOs. Last week, we hosted a Lunch & Learn webinar (video below) with Cissy Young, PhD (楊 詩華), Managing Director True Search, and she shared why CMOs have become one of the hottest executive searches for private companies. “Financing is starting to come back, but the investors are very disciplined and they expect that the entrepreneurs are going to be disciplined.” If you’re going to spend the money

Equity is one of the most powerful compensation levers available to privately held companies AKA startups. We get asked weekly: How do equity refreshes work? In this week’s PC data drop, we’re breaking down what equity refresh grants are, when companies actually use them, and how to make them sustainable and strategic. All data is pulled from the Thelander Platform, via a Private Company Subscription. Equity refresh grants are follow-on equity awards for existing employees whose original grants are fully vested. They’re designed to keep key employees incentivized and aligned as the company grows. Here’s what you need to know:

Scientist compensation at private companies doesn’t just rise with each funding round—the balance between cash and equity can flip as companies grow. As private companies raise more capital, the mix shifts: cash is more available and equity is more of a commodity. Using real-time data from the Thelander Comp Planning Tool, here’s how scientist total cash and non-founder equity move across financing bands. The Thelander platform provides real‑time compensation data on 300+ roles—from the C‑suite to entry‑level employees. To see how your current compensation compares to market, participate in the no-charge Thelander Private Company Compensation Survey today. You’ll unlock data for all

In this week’s PC data drop, we’re using data from the Thelander Platform looking at how median total cash, founder and non-founder equity compensation for CEOs of private tech companies shifts based on revenue. Generally speaking, the more revenue a company generates, the higher the CEOs median total cash compensation. As far as total founder equity goes, the typical dilution still occurs. Total Cash Rises With Revenue Founder Equity Dilutes as Companies Scale The equity story runs in the opposite direction. Non-Founder Equity Holds Steady What This Means for Compensation Planning Revenue is a meaningful benchmark for CEO compensation, but

Building compensation infrastructure for startups is one of the most overlooked foundations of a growing company—but what does putting it in place really mean? It means building a clear job architecture and a structured salary framework. It also means moving away from ad-hoc decisions—whether driven by what an individual candidate asks for or by setting pay position by position—because those one-off choices tend to create problems down the road. It’s never too early to put this infrastructure in place. The sooner you do, the stronger your foundation will be. That way, you and your team can spend less time wondering

Thelander recently published the results from the Private Company Year-End Merit Increase, Option Pool & Bonus Report (available through a subscription to the Thelander Platform) – which featured new data on secondary markets given their prominence in today’s global private capital market. Here’s what startups need to know re: secondary markets and compensation. The results? 92% of private companies surveyed haven’t engaged in any secondary market transactions. Out of the 8% who have engaged in these transactions: And do the companies assist employees in financing a liquidity solution? Short answer, NO. As companies stay private for longer and “secondaries have gained acceptance as a critical liquidity

CFOs are invaluable at private companies (AKA startups) —often seen as the #2 alongside the CEO. At later‑stage private companies, the CFO isn’t just running finance; they’re co‑piloting the business and owning the path to liquidity (which is opening back up). So, what are these key players making? Using YoY data from the Thelander platform (available through a subscription or survey participation), median CFO total cash has risen from $352K in 2022 to $400K in 2025–26 for companies that have raised $90M+. If you’re a CFO or private company exec planning key 2026 hires, you can access real‑time compensation data for every

Startup compensation trends continued their upward climb in 2025. This data drop analyzes total cash compensation trends across four key positions – CEOs, CSOs, Engineering Managers and Operation Managers – at startups that have raised between $50 and $109.9 million in total financing. Thelander data shows that total cash increased in 2025 for all four positions at both the median and 75th percentile. It continues the overall trend of increasing total cash since 2021.  Key Findings for YoY Growth (2024 to 2025):  At the median, Operations Managers saw the highest percentage of growth from 2024 to 2025 – 16% – outpacing higher-level positions which