Startup CTO - Pay/Equity?

[frugally]

Hi Folks,

I'm currently in the middle of negotiations with a startup (~25 employees, few million dollar valuation) for a CTO position at a company that has almost no existing tech, and has never had an engineering employee.  I'm checking to see if anyone has experience with this type of role, how the base salary typically compares to that of a senior software engineer/engineering manager in their respective cost-of-living-area, and also a ballpark for how much equity I might be able to command.

Also, if you do have previous experience, I would love to hear about what you liked/disliked about it.  I'm definitely nervous about starting with a blank slate in terms of technology at a company!

Thanks!

[iamlindoro]

I think it's too hard to say without more info.  The company has never had an engineering employee, but suddenly finds itself needing a CTO.  Can you tell us more about the nature of what's expected of you?

There are just so many variables at play here-- how well the company is funded, what space they are in, how much of their future success is reliant on your success, where the company is located, and your level of experience being some of the critical factors.

I've been a director at a company in an engineering capacity.  Joined when there were under 10 employees, received most of my options in the first grant.  Ended with maybe .1-.2% of the company by the time it grew to 200 employees.  Company out of business.  My salary topped out in the six figures (above 120K, below 150K).  Bay Area.  I know what the CTO was making and it was ~40K over me with probably 2x the options.

[frugally]

Basically they're a service-oriented company looking for someone to come in and build out a slick dashboard for internal and external users to consume/make decisions on data.  As a service company, their valuation is linearly tied to revenue.  They (and their investors) believe that with some tech, they can improve that valuation to 2x revenue as they scale.

- Company is currently raising a second round of funding specifically so they can build this out.
- The company would run perfectly fine without any technology, but their valuation scalability is directly tied to it.
- Company is located in an area that is not known for technology and does not have a wide talent pool.
- I have startup experience working on a similar project for two years, and then a couple years of management experience in engineering.

Hopefully that helps.

[matchewed]

If you've gone through a similar project, did that project have a CTO? If so can you reach out and have a conversation with that person?

[frugally]

If you've gone through a similar project, did that project have a CTO? If so can you reach out and have a conversation with that person?

By similar, I mean that it was a small group of us working as a mostly-independent part of a medium-sized company, so unfortunately no. :-/