Startups have never been able to offer the same sizable salaries as big tech companies. Now with companies like Meta and OpenAI willing to pay million-dollar salaries amid the AI race — the compensation divide has grown even larger.
Early-stage startups are not doomed though. If they develop a compensation strategy that is generous, fair, and flexible, they can offer competitive compensation packages and give themselves room to adjust their approach as they grow, according to founders and experts who were onstage at News Disrupt 2025.
Startups shouldn’t try to compete with big tech companies anyway, Yin Wu, the co-founder and CEO of equity management software Pulley, said on stage at News Disrupt in October. She added that a stable tech company and a startup don’t generally attract the same potential candidates to begin with.
Startups should instead be as charitable as they can in their compensation packages, Wu said, regardless of their inability to match a big tech company’s paycheck.
“My pretty strong opinion when it comes to equity for a startup is that you should be more generous than what you think you should be,” Wu said. “I think it is unlikely, if the company is really successful, you’re going to look back and say, ‘man, I gave away too much equity of everyone that was at my company trying to make this company really successful.’”
Randi Jakubowitz, the head of talent at 645 Ventures, agreed. Jakubowitz added that when a startup is looking to make a competitive offer, they should set clear goals for the person they are hiring to ensure that hire lives up to the compensation they are getting.
“Make sure you’re holding them accountable and make sure that you understand what the implications are from a vesting cliff standpoint,” Jakubowitz said, regarding when employees gain control over their equity stakes. “That’s where, if you don’t move quickly if someone’s underperforming, that’s equity that you’ll never get back if they are fully vested. Make sure that there’s very clear accountability. “
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The panelists also stressed that companies don’t need to get their compensation and equity strategies set in stone from the start. Startups should instead ensure their approach is fair from the beginning, so even if they do want to change, they have the proper foundation to do so without setting themselves up for legal trouble or soured office politics.
For Wu, and her company Pulley, that meant setting standards around compensation packages. Wu said the company pays a set range for each role — regardless of where a potential employee is based — and consistently builds compensation packages with equity offerings in the 90th percentile.
“Having this framework allowed us to be able to grow and say ‘great, as the company continues to do well, the actual number of shares you receive is going to differ because the value the companies differ, but that framework is still applied.”
Rebecca Lee Whiting, founder of Epigram Legal and fractional general counsel, added that having these standards will help companies avoid potential legal pitfalls down the line. For instance, it helps companies avoid offering unequal pay across candidates of different genders — which is something all companies should try to avoid ethically — but is also illegal in states like California, Whiting noted.
Whiting, Wu and, Jakubowitz all agreed that as long as founders approach building their compensation packages with fair intentions, everything else can be adjusted or changed down the line.
“I think it’s really important to think about not just that process. Think about who are the people you’re trying to hire and what is going to incentivize them to take that offer,” Whiting said. “It’s not something that you have to get right out of the gate. You will likely have to do clean up post the Series B and acknowledging that is okay. But don’t try and get it perfect out of the out of the gate when you’re hiring your first few people.”
