We’re putting negotiation power back into the hands of the people

boston Compensation Comps suck

So we did something about it

We went straight to the source

Comp Data for Operators, by Operators

What data do you think is better? The Annual VC Comp Study that is thin, faceless, and reverted to the mean… OR comp data aggregated from known, A players at high growth companies? You decide. 🤣

You’re telling me that these are your data sources? haha

VC EXEC Comp Study

Super, SUPER thin data for Boston
Only includes executive comp

Payscale

No visibility into grade of talent (reverts to the mean: B players)

No visibility into growth of company (reverts to the mean: average growth companies)

Glassdoor

Not going to even waste our time talking about Glassdoor data. It’s shit.

Let us illustrate…

Both of these people have the same role: Quarterback.

Would you pay them the same?

Tom Brady

7 Super Bowl Rings

3 time MVP

20 years in the NFL

Top Records:

Most games won by a quarterback: 264

Most combined passing yards: 91,653

Most combined touchdown passes: 664

Most fourth quarter comebacks: 48

Most playoff wins: 34

Etc, etc, etc…

Aaron Rodgers

1 Super bowl ring

3 time MVP

15 years in NFL

Top Records:

A few… but not as good as ol’ Tommy boy.

Should their compensation be 10% different?

I’ll let you answer that question for yourself 🙂

Apply that thinking to tech

Both of these candidates are finalists for a CMO role at a venture backed, Series A, Boston based company.

The role is budgeted at $180k base.

Should these two Operators comp be 10% different because of a pay band your read about in the VC comp study?

Lindsay Thompson

15 years Engineering experience

Nickname: “X Factor 10” (known for being a 10x Engineer)

1st job: Entry level job. Promoted each year for doing kickass work.

2nd job: Joined Series A through IPO. Saw hypergrowth mode: Scaled her department from 3 employees to 80 employees. Company IPO’s for $25 Billion.

3rd job: Founds company. Raises $5 MM. Company acquired for $50 MM.

Other stats:

Magnet for talent: Over 100+ past employees have followed her from company to company across all departments.
Employee rank: Has ranked #1 in the past 10 performance reviews.
Employee of the month: 38 times in a row.

Kathy Johnson

15 years Engineering experience, 3 past jobs

Nickname: “Smooth Sailing” (known for not rocking the boat)

1st job: Entry level job. Promoted each year for doing kickass work.

2nd job: Joined Series A through Series B. Saw moderate growth. Scaled her team from 5 employees to 9 employees. Company is acquired for $75 MM.

3rd job: Founds company. Raises $5 MM. Company is acquihired.

Other stats: Cricketts

You are CEO. Who do you hire? And are you willing to “break the band”?

It’s time we start evaluating people based on their performance and stats, rather than adopted comp bands from nebulous data sources

Make It

Introducing…

the Operators

thickest, boston, High-growth Operator comp data that ever existed

Straight from the source: The actual Operators haha

The Problem

Today, companies are in the driver’s seat when it comes to compensation and negotiation.

What do you get when you take an A , B, and C player’s comp at an A company (high growth), a C company (neutral growth) and an F company (declining growth) and combine them together? Answer: You get an average.

The Solution

Let’s put Operators back in the driver’s seat.

Let’s go directly to the source… existing Operators in high-growth opportunities.

When it comes to negotiating with companies, Operators are at a disadvantage. They are on their own to do their own research and figure it out for themselves. Some have fellow Operator friends who they can ask. And some refer to the piss-poor direction provided by tools like the Annual VC Comp Study, Payscale, and Glassdoor. This data is thin. This data is old. And this data is an average of A, B, C, D, and F players.

use tools like the Annual VC Comp Study, Payscale, and others to set compensation benchmarks. These tools provide super thin data, and worst of all: they include data companies from average companies and average people.

A players don’t deserve the average of A, B, C, D, and F people. They deserve more. They deserve better.

All-Stars don’t ride the bench, so

So let’s quit quoting bench prices.

If you’re an All-Star champion, why would a proper comp be remotely related to bench players?

Negotiate with real data from known operators

We have the best comp data in Boston for high growth tech companies. Period. Why? Because… (1) All of our friends are operators at high growth companies and we asked them. (2) We don’t dilute our data with shit companies. Anddd (3) We don’t dilute with B and C players.

So the next time you go to negotiate with a company and they say: “Welllll… the VC comp study says market is $X”… just know that we, the operators, the people, know that the market pays $y. What’s up.

All-Stars deserve All-Star comp

Here’s a hypothetical I want you to think about: You’re Founder & CEO of a startup and looking to hire a Head of Product. You’ve budgeted $150k for the role + equity and bonus. All in the package is $250k. Pretty good you think. That’s what the annual VC Comp Study and Payscale say afterall. And your VC says it’s good to.

You’re then introduced to the Tom Brady of Product. And he’s down to tango. He wants to be your Head of Product.

He’s 10x better than anyone else you’ve interviewed. He’s 10x more skilled. 10x more motivated. 10x everything. And he wants 10x the compensation.

What do you do?

Compensation data straight from the horse’s (Operators) mouth

Our database

The Underground --> The League

my database is all-stars and your data base is bench players

russell is up for contract. the benchmarking is set with brad, mahomes, etc. the bar is set higher.

every year your peer/cohort is set higher due to the way collective bargaining works in the nfl.

who was the last quarterback to get a new contract and get the way they negotiated.

when they are comping mahomes. they aren't comparing to dwayne haskin on the redskins or cam newton. while the others are quarterbacks, they are not allstars.

you rep

you can only get the comp info if you are a partner.

What’s special about our data?

Our data comes from A talent at high-growth companies. Surprise, surprise… not all Operators or companies are created equal.

Operators: A player Operators. Our compensation data is from A players who have at least five references from others. Our team of Operators reviews each person and decides if they are allowed in (BEFORE seeing what their compensation data is). This blind approach allows us not to skew the data in one way or the other.

Companies: High-growth companies only. Some companies in town have strong growth, and others have neutral or flat. We do not include companies with a history of flat or neutral growth. Why? Because our comp data is for A players and A players play at high-growth companies. Data on B and C grade companies is irrelevant. Think of it this way:

Operators are all domain expert opeators with 10+ years of experience. They’ve led high-growth companies. They’ve IPO’d companies. They’ve founded companies. They are champions.

They serve on the boards of some of Boston’s fastest growing companies.

Our Operators