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2009 Startup Executive Compensation Survey Opens

[UPDATE] The 2009 CompStudy survey results are now published here.

I’ve mentioned this survey several times before, but this time I bring news of the 2009 survey opening to participants. This year the survey covers five countries (China, India, Israel, UK and US) in two industries (technology and life sciences). If you are CEO or CFO of a startup company in any of these countries/industries then I encourage you to participate in the survey. It doesn’t cost anything to participate (other than the 30-60 minutes it takes to complete the survey) and the benefit is that you get the full results once they are published.

In years past, the results were published in a PDF and a hardcopy book, but starting in 2009 the results will be published online via a password protected, members-only site (so participating is really the only way you can get the results). I think the 2009 data will be very interesting as it will reflect the effects of the overall economy as well as provide global comparisons. Don’t miss the opportunity to get the 2009 data…take the survey now!

If you haven’t seen the results of this survey before, I’m including both of last year’s unabridged reports results below. It’s actually pretty simple, yet since the data is otherwise so hard to find it’s pretty powerful. Basically the survey collects salary, cash bonus and equity information for the top executives in private companies (mostly venture- and preventure-backed companies). The survey also collects information about the background of the executives and of the company (like location, size, funding, industry, etc.). The report is then able to give ranges of compensation based on these attributes.

First, there is the 2008 report for the technology industry focused on the following positions:

Technology

  • CEO
  • President / COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Head of Engineering
  • Head of Sales
  • Head of Marketing
  • Head of Business Development
  • Head of HR
  • Head of Professional Services
  • Board of Directors

And here is the full 2008 report for the life sciences industry focused on the following positions:

Life Sciences

  • CEO
  • President / COO
  • CFO
  • Chief Scientific Officer / Head of R&D
  • Chief Business Officer / Head of Biz Dev
  • Head of Clinical Research
  • Head of Regulatory Affairs
  • Head of Manufacturing
  • Head of Sales (& Marketing)
  • Head of Marketing
  • CTO
  • Head of Engineering
  • Head of HR
  • Board of Directors

There are some things that immediately jump out of the data.  One is that company founders have a significant discount in terms of cash compensation (but obviously a premium in equity).  Another point is that the equivalent role in a technology company is compensated at a lower level than in life sciences.

So if you are a startup CEO of CFO (whether you have venture backing or not) please take the time to go complete the survey and you’ll get the 2009 results for free.  And also you can do a friend a favor and forward this post to them so they can fill out the survey as well.

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Categorised as: Entrepreneurship, Management, Startups, Venture Capital

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/ssaikia ssaikia

    COMPENSATION DATA FOR 2008 STARTUPS (US)

    Thank you for this data. Equally valuable are the interviews. Entrepreneurs (like me) need to know the market-rates for management (and non-management). Including non-US data such as China and India in the 2009 report will be even more valuable.

  • Hari

    I am not sure if this is the right website to seek guidance but I will try anyway.
    I expect an offer for SVP of R&D reporting to CEO from a small start up with a recent successful series A financing. The expectation is value creation thru IP and product development for successful exit (acquistion or IPO) with in 3 years. I have a very good job (VP of Product Development) in a large internatioinal company. What are my options for negotiating a comprehensive compensation package?
    If you do not provide such guidance, can you point me in the right direction?
    Hari

    • http://www.altgate.com/ fnazeeri

      Hi Hari. I assume you checked out the CompStudy reports in this blog post to get comparable data. The title SVP R&D isn’t listed specifically, but you should be able to find a close proxy. If the company is in the life sciences industry then you can use “Chief Scientific Officer” and if it’s in the technology space you probably want to look at something between CTO and Head of Engineering. What you want to do is find an appropriate range for each of base salary, cash bonus and equity, the three main drivers of startup compensation based on location and size of the company. CompStudy gives this info by geography, headcount, round of financing, revenue and more. Since you’re coming from a large company where the equity component is small or non-existent, you can expect that the offer will have a lower overall cash compensation but more in equity (the famous cash-equity trade off). Ultimately that’s the area you’ll mostly likely be able to negotiate (i.e. more equity in exchange for the cut in cash compensation). Also, don’t forget to look at the other items in the offer that constitute compensation including health insurance, severance, etc. Lastly, remember that statistics are good at predicting outcomes over time but are not helpful on one particular event (with a hundred coin tosses you know it should come out 50/50 heads/tails but on one particular toss you’re just guessing). Good luck!

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