team-composition-analysis

Start by identifying your stage and revenue, then prioritize roles critical to your next milestone. For seed stage ($500K-$2M ARR), typical hires are an engineering lead, 2-3 engineers, a first sales hire, and a product manager, with 2-3 months of buffer added to recruiting timelines.

Senior engineers at US startups typically earn $150K-$180K base salary in 2024 benchmarks. Adjust by geography: add 20-30% for San Francisco or New York, subtract 10-20% for remote or smaller markets, and multiply base by 1.3-1.4 for fully-loaded cost.

Equity depends on stage and role. First engineers at pre-seed typically receive 0.5-2.0%, seed-stage VPs get 0.5-1.5%, and Series A C-level hires get 1.0-3.0%. Standard vesting is 4 years with a 1-year cliff.

Option pools are typically 10-15% at pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds, dropping to 5-10% at Series B and beyond. Investors often require pool creation before investment, which dilutes founders, so negotiate pool size carefully.

Use contractors for specialized short-term needs like legal and accounting, variable workloads like design, or testing a role before committing to a full-time hire. Use full-time employees for core product development, sales, and roles requiring institutional knowledge.

Benchmarks reflect US 2024 market data and vary significantly by geography, industry, and funding environment. International compensation differs widely by country, so treat ranges as starting points and validate against current local market data.