INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Conrad Lee
Contributor
Conrad Lee leads the VC Executive Compensation Survey and Option Impact at
Shareworks Compensation, formerly Advanced-HR
He has spent the last decade developing and delivering the world largest pre-IPO compensation database for startups and their
investors.
Compensation is the most intimate way a company can interact with its employees
For far too long, compensation managers and committees have operated behind closed doors, keeping pay guidelines shrouded in mystery
Developers with equal experience, performing at the same level, and huddled around the same table while trying to perfect autonomous ocean
to table omakase experiences could receive drastically different pay packages
Those times are over.
Unemployment sits at historic lows, investors are pouring in money through massive rounds, and companies are stepping
on, over, and around each other to attract the best talent
Silicon Valley sits at the epicenter of competitive labor markets, but we&ve heard the same story over and over: Big Company X is coming to
town, and we can&t pay like them.
Heads up Seattle, Austin, Boulder, Boston, New York, Chicago, and most recently, Virginia! Recruiters must
be aggressive, and it only a matter of time before an all-star employee mentions a 25% pay bump available at Company X
A team member hears the news and they&re suddenly browsing job boards as well
The dreaded churn switch is pushed a notch higher.
Today workforce is more connected than ever, having grown with technology since the days
of Tetris, Shufflepuck, and Oregon Trail
What was once taboo to share with anyone beyond your significant other, is now being posted freely for the masses.
We won&t even start on
the impacts of social media! Reviews and ratings began popping up for schools, restaurants, and workplaces
Glassdoor, Salary, and others provide deep insights to pay, work-life balance, and executive leadership approval ratings.
Then, things went
a step further by detailing gender alongside compensation, most notably in the employee-led survey at Google in 2017
It was the shot heard round the world
How could a well-known organization which prides itself on diversity, and that some think is the entire internet, find itself with gender
pay disparity?
Over the past year, I&ve visited and revisited the gender pay gap with various talent partners at prominent venture firms
Kelly Kinnard of Battery Ventures and Bethany Crystal of USV authored pieces on the topic
One theme was common when discussing pay disparity & What if we had real data? What if we had corporate-sourced data that wasn&t subject to
disgruntled employees or selective reporting? Well, we do.
Advanced-HR hosts the world largest compensation database specific to
For the first time, we took a deep dive into compensation and gender at privately held, VC-backed companies and we&re sharing the
findings.
Thousands of companies and 10,000+ corporate-sourced employee data points
Though we analyzed the entire data set, this article only considers US Company data.
We do not display gender-based compensation data but
VC-backed companies can access our database of 2800+ participants for free by completing a quick survey
Venture firms and all others interested in our data, contact us here.
About the data
Each year, we have the privilege of running the
industry standard VC Executive Compensation Survey alongside 160+ top venture firms
All sponsoring firms and their participating portfolio companies receive the final report of detailed, aggregate, and anonymous compensation
Before we review compensation, let visit gender representation at VC-backed companies.
The following slide is part of a more comprehensive
11-slide deck viewable at the end of this article, highlighting takeaways and key findings from our data.
Data is great
Now what?
It the hot topic and hiring managers are on red alert
Pay fairly or risk a PR nightmare
Here are some steps you may want to consider.
1
Owning the hiring process allows founders to gain valuable experience and exposure
By creating job descriptions, founders can be thoughtful and sensitive to the fact that connotations and tone can unintentionally isolate a
specific segment of eligible talent.
