How much money are directors making at VC back companies?

How much money are directors making at VC back companies? Let's look at the Carta data. As a reminder, Carta has basically all the cap tables for VC back companies in the US. So this is real information. In the gray, we have the salaries for companies valued at 25 million. That's probably somewhere between a seed and a series ACH company. And on the right, company's valued at 250 million. So, you'll see like in the people category, director's salary at a $25 million dollar valued company 161k. The $250 million company 187k. That's a 21% difference. In people that kind of makes sense because you're probably managing a lot more people. You're probably hiring for a lot more roles. So you're going to see a wider spread. Directors of engineering, however, there's only a 5% difference between the company valued at 25 million and the company valued at 250 million. So why would you take less money at a company that's not valued as much? The answer is a couple fold. One, the equity. Compensation is a mix of cash and equity and this is just looking at cash comp, not equity compensation. In the earlier stage company, you are likely going to be getting a much larger equity grant, then you would at the company that's valued at 250 million. And so when that company exits you're hopefully going to make more money. Now, that is also hotly debated. Is equity really worth anything? If you live in San Francisco, you see every day that equity is worth something, lots of people be cut millionaire over night, it's kind of nuts. The other thing to consider is risk. If the company is valued at 25 million, there's also a stronger chance that the company's not going to be around in 18 to 24 months. So, you have this opportunity on a small team to contribute and grow and that can be great for your career. If you're a director, you're kind of juniorish and so there's room for you to take on more. But you also risk the company running out of funds. If you're looking to join as a director at a startup company, it's really good to look at the real data to understand what the general board you're in is and also to understand if you're looking to get a job at a seed stage or series A stage company, what the compound is versus a later stage company with a 200 25 million dollar valuation where it's going to be on the higher end. So, save the video if you want to save the data and hopefully this is helpful to you as you think about your next step in your career.