Startup Salary & Equity Database

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Title Salary Hide salary, order only Equity % Equity $ Hide equity, order only Location Total YOE Years at Startup Stage Size Valuation Date
Senior founding software engineer $180,000 $180,000 2.0% $160,000 $160,000 Los Angeles 8.0 1.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $8M 2025/05
Founding software engineer $225,000 $225,000 1.5% $75,000 $75,000 Remote US 10.0 0.5 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $5M 2025/04
CTO $170,000 $170,000 5.0% $1,000,000 $1,000,000 San Francisco Bay Area 25.0 1.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $20M 2024/11
Senior machine learning engineer $160,000 $160,000 1.26% $630,000 $630,000 Remote US 6.5 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $50M 2024/05
CTO $180,000 $180,000 0.5% $25,000 $25,000 Remote US 10.0 1.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $5M 2024/05
Director of engineering $85,000 $85,000 0.67% $100,000 $100,000 New York City 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $15M 2024/01
Head of Engineering $190,000 $190,000 2.0% $120,000 $120,000 San Francisco Bay Area 25.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $6M 2023/12
Founding software engineer $80,000 $80,000 5.0% $500,000 $500,000 Remote US 3.5 3.5 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $10M 2023/12
Head of Engineering $150,000+$30K $150,000 3.0% $360,000+$115K $360,000 Remote US 9.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $12M 2023/04
Founding software engineer $140,000 $140,000 2.0% $500,000+$150K $500,000 San Francisco Bay Area 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $25M 2023/04
Machine learning engineer $100,000 $100,000 3.0% $300,000 $300,000 San Francisco Bay Area 4.0 2.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $10M 2023/03
Lead software engineer $100,000 $100,000 5.0% $60,000 $60,000 New York City 5.0 2.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $1M 2022/11
CTO $110,000 $110,000 20.0% $2,500,000 $2,500,000 Remote US 8.0 5.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $12M 2022/09
Founding software engineer $180,000 $180,000 1.0% - - New York City 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/08
Founding software engineer $150,000 $150,000 1.27% $190,000 $190,000 Germany 15.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $15M 2022/08
Software engineer $175,000 $175,000 0.2% $60,000 $60,000 Remote US 6.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $30M 2022/07
Senior software engineer $165,000+$21K $165,000 2.0% - - San Francisco Bay Area 8.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/06
Machine learning engineer $250,000 $250,000 2.5% $375,000 $375,000 San Francisco Bay Area 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $15M 2022/06
Lead software engineer $150,000 $150,000 3.0% $30,000 $30,000 Remote US 6.0 2.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees $1M 2022/04
VP of Engineering $165,000 $165,000 2.5% - - Remote US 11.0 2.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/03
Lead full stack engineer $185,000 $185,000 3.0% - - Sacramento 25.0 3.0 Pre-Seed 11-50 employees - 2022/02
Senior software engineer $90,000 $90,000 4.0% - - Remote US 7.0 1.5 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/02
Founding full stack engineer $182,000 $182,000 3.5% - - Remote US 4.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/02
Engineering lead $160,000 $160,000 1.4% - - Remote US 4.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/02
Founding full stack engineer $185,000 $185,000 1.7% - - New York City 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/02
Founding full stack engineer $160,000 $160,000 0.73% - - Remote US 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/02
Software engineer $152,000 $152,000 0.46% - - Seattle 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $140,000 $140,000 1.06% - - Seattle 4.5 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $162,000 $162,000 0.46% - - San Francisco Bay Area 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $158,000 $158,000 1.76% - - San Francisco 2.5 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $132,000 $132,000 1.06% - - San Francisco 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $125,000 $125,000 0.44% - - New York City 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $168,000 $168,000 0.16% - - New York City 3.5 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $125,000 $125,000 0.44% - - Boston 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Software engineer $130,000 $130,000 0.21% - - Boston 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Senior software engineer $130,000 $130,000 2.5% - - New York City 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Senior software engineer $75,000 $75,000 0.01% - - Remote US 2.0 2.0 Pre-Seed 11-50 employees - 2022/01
Senior software engineer $140,000 $140,000 0.83% - - New York City 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Senior software engineer $120,000 $120,000 3.5% - - New York City 7.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Senior full stack engineer $95,000 $95,000 0.39% - - Remote US 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Mobile developer $100,000 $100,000 1.19% - - Nashville 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Machine learning engineer $120,000 $120,000 0.15% - - Toronto 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Machine learning engineer $128,000 $128,000 0.08% - - San Francisco 4.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Lead software engineer $110,000 $110,000 4.5% - - New York City 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Lead software engineer $110,000 $110,000 4.5% - - Boston 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Lead software engineer $110,000 $110,000 4.5% - - Austin 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Lead iOS developer $140,000 $140,000 1.5% - - Los Angeles 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Lead backend engineer $153,000 $153,000 0.44% - - New York City 8.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Full stack engineer $150,000 $150,000 0.69% - - San Francisco Bay Area 4.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Full stack engineer $125,000 $125,000 2.33% - - San Francisco 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Full stack engineer $125,000 $125,000 2.33% - - Detroit 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Frontend engineer $115,000 $115,000 0.2% - - Boston 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Founding software engineer $165,000 $165,000 3.5% - - Los Angeles 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Founding full stack engineer $163,000 $163,000 2.08% - - Remote US 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Founding full stack engineer $163,000 $163,000 2.08% - - Remote US 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Engineering manager $175,000 $175,000 3.88% - - San Francisco 6.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Director of engineering $175,000 $175,000 2.5% - - Seattle 9.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Director of engineering $180,000 $180,000 3.1% - - San Francisco 10.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
CTO $190,000 $190,000 6.0% - - New York City 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
CTO $105,000 $105,000 16.25% - - New York City 5.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
CTO $125,000 $125,000 3.25% - - Los Angeles 3.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
CTO $120,000 $120,000 7.75% - - Los Angeles 10.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01
Backend engineer $110,000 $110,000 0.23% - - San Francisco Bay Area 2.0 0.0 Pre-Seed 1-10 employees - 2022/01

Take 1 minute to add your comp - 100% anonymous ๐Ÿค



Combination of private submissions and private benchmarks. Exact submission date is listed under "Date" column. All submissions are vetted for accuracy.

It's your % ownership of the startup. Calculated one of two ways:
โ€ข Your total # of shares รท Fully diluted outstanding shares x 100 โ€” confirm that it's fully diluted; otherwise, your stake will look higher than it truly is
โ€ข Current value of your shares รท current company valuation x 100 โ€” value is based on preferred price (what investors paid); updates with each fundraise

Always make sure you have the numerator and the denominator.

Equity % helps you project what you stand to make. For example, if you have a 1% equity stake in a startup valued at $100M, which eventually IPOs at $1B, your stake will be worth 1% * $1B * dilution rate โ€” dilution rate varies, but a rule of thumb is to assume 10-25% per funding round. This means the earlier you join, the more diluted you'll become. But you'll also have a lower strike price and usually a much bigger % to start with.

TLDR: know your comp band, target a percentile in-line with how strongly the company needs your skillset, and counter based on what you care about most (salary, equity, bonus, benefits).

But every situation is different. If you'd like 1:1 support and guaranteed higher comp, we can help.