2007 IT Startup Compensation Study

The latest edition (2007) of this valuable resource is out.  With a few years of tracking these data, as expected, there aren't many big changes from 2006.  The average base salary across all positions surveyed increased about 5% over the previous year and the cash 2007_it_2bonus (as a percent of base salary) remained about the same.  There is still a "founder discount" in terms of cash compensation. 

There were a couple of new questions that highligt some interesting points including a question about target cash bonus (versus actual bonus paid).  It turns out that the actual bonus was about 2/3 of target when averaged across all positions–the implication being that on average startups deliver about 2/3 of what they claim. 

The other interesting point is regarding recruiting where investors source less than 20% of new executive hires which is not a great testament (on average) to the "value add" of venture investors.

The one issue not addressed (yet) in this study is the "first time discount" which is hard to quantify in a survey but is very much there in reality, i.e. a first time CEO gets a significant discount as does a director stepping up to a VP job, etc.  Who knows, maybe we'll see that in the 2008 report!

If you're interested in the full report, send me an email and I'll hook you up.