Benchmarking Compensation
Scroll down to see how you can benchmark cash and equity compensation and build an effective compensation strategy from the start.
Access Benchmarking Data
Techstars has partnered with Advanced-HR to provide our portfolio companies with highly relevant cash and equity compensation benchmarking data. The program is a give-to-get model and provides full access at no cost to participants after a 21-day review in exchange for their compensation data. In return, portfolio companies gain access to the largest compensation database specific to private, venture-backed companies (3000+ seed through series B participants).
Key Benefits:
3000+ participants, the largest pre-IPO survey specific to venture-backed companies
Base salary, bonus, and % total equity on executives, staff and BOD data
Automated custom benchmark analysis for all employees and more
Log in or sign up here to receive full access to the database and a special executive-level report. If your company already has an account and needs help with your username or password reach out to compensation@shareworks.com.
Once you input your company’s compensation data, you can choose your access timeline:
Standard QA Review – $0; access within 21 days.
Access Data Now – $500; immediate access following input.
Please email compensation@shareworks.com or call 415.362.2200 if you have any questions or if you’d like additional information.
Thinking Through Equity Compensation: Recommended Reads
It’s important to thoughtfully balance cash and equity compensation in order to attract the right employees as an early stage company. Leveraging equity compensation is a great way to reward early employees for taking risk with you as you build your business together. Below are a series of guides that can be very useful in thinking through early stage equity compensation structure and communication to employees.
The Holloway Guide to Equity Compensation: A thorough guide that covers everything from plan basics to the details of tax considerations. A great guide to bookmark for more complex questions and understanding the mechanics.
Balderton Essentials Guide to Employee Equity by Balderton Capital: A simple but informative guide to thinking about ESOPs and equity compensation as your company grows. Touches on how practices differ internationally, specifically in many EU countries.
eShares A Better Offer Letter: Blog post and template for transparently explaining equity compensation to new hires in an offer letter.
A No B.S. Guide to Startup Stock Option Grants (by Matt Cooper of Skillshare): An actionable guide to transparent planning and communication of equity compensation to employees with useful calculators and actual numbers to help you think through real world examples.
It’s important to come up with a thoughtful compensation philosophy early, so that you have a high integrity foundation to work from as you hire. We recommend leveraging these guides as you build that philosophy and bookmarking them to reference as needed in continuing to build your team.
