$132K – $149K, based on data, is what early-stage founders pay early employees

After a startup raises its seed round, the perennial question is how much should founders pay themselves and their first few employees?

Kruse Consultinga CPA firm specializing in venture-backed startups recently analyzed the median salary ranges for more than 450 early-stage startups and shared the data with TechCrunch.

Kruze says the averages below are based on actual salary records, not survey responses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, technical engineering/product positions command higher salaries than CEOs. One surprise is that someone with a COO/operations title also earns a higher average salary. This is an eye-opener, as the title of operations/COO may indicate a third co-founder without a well-defined role to your core VCs – there aren’t many operations to work on at a small company. It may even be to own this role red flag on spend/budget to early stage VCs.

However, according to Kruse, the average salaries of founding CEOs are:

• CEO: $132,000
• CTO: $134,000
• COO/Operations: $135,000
• Product/CPO: $149,000

These are not very high salaries, especially in the land of startups, the Bay Area. For example, Kruze also found that very senior engineers enter seed startups with salaries ranging from $180,000 to $235,000 in the Bay Area and $160,000 to $210,000 in other areas. On the other hand, an entry-level engineer, even in San Francisco, won’t command that much: an average of $75,000 to $105,000.

It’s worth noting that founders tend to give themselves healthy raises in every round they raise. After Series A, the average salary in the founder executive category is $183,000, and for Series B, it reaches $218,000.

According to Kruse, in titles less likely to be a founder, employee salaries for initial hires are:

• Engineering, Intermediate: Bay Area between $100,000 and $145,000; Other tech centers between $90,000 and $130,000
• Sales, middle level: Bay Area between $80,000 and $110,000; $70,000 to $100,000
• Product names: $130,000 – $185,000 Bay Area; From $110,000 to $175,000
• Marketing, Intermediate: $100,000 to $175,000 Bay Area; From $80,000 to $145,000

Employees also tend to get equity—that’s one of the charms of joining a startup. Data From Carta It shows how long the first five hires can expect, covering more than 8,000 initial grants, which are awarded over four years.

• First rental: 0.5% to 4% equity (median 1.49%)
• Second: 0.3% to 2% equity (median 0.85%)
• Third: 0.21% to 1.2% equity (median 0.50%)
• Fourth: 0.18% to 1% equity (median 0.44%)
• Fifth: 0.13% to 0.8% equity (median 0.34%)