Tools to help you put together a competitive offer, source contract talent, and manage payroll. Includes content related to co-founder dynamics and identifying co-founders.
A very comprehensive database of hires made by startups including job title, salary, equity, location, and company information (size, fundraise stage, and valuation).
Representative org charts for a hypothetical SaaS company after Series A, B, and C funding. At earlier stages the positions needed will vary too much to offer advice on best practices.
YCombinator’s Startup School is one of the best resources for founders out there. This video covers techniques you can use to find a co-founder and build a lasting partnership.
A thorough overview from Will Larson on managing engineering organizations. Likely applies more to larger/later stage startups.
Carta’s guide based on benchmark data for sizing an option pool at each round.
A self-paced online course from Carta focused on how equity works in startups - from key terms, to negotiating compensation, tax implications, cap tables, and more.
Carta’s Director of Insights shares how 18,000 pre-seed and seed-stage startups split their equity.
Learn how to write an effective job posting that respects candidates.
Find salary ranges for specific job titles and locations.
Find salary ranges for common job titles. Includes a location filter.
Community for matching co-founders and early-stage employees
A marketplace to connect with potential cofounders and early-stage employees.
From First Round Capital. A 50-question checklist and accompanying article that provides a framework for identifying a co-founder fit.
Constantly-updated guidebook with recommendations and best practices for equity comp in startups
Marketplace for project or ongoing staffing. Hourly and fixed-fee options. Tends to be more expensive but higher quality than Fiverr.
Marketplace for spot project talent (design, development, copywriting, marketing support, etc
Things to consider when trying to find a co-founder.
Data from Pitchbook's survey of company option pools, broken out by stage of company and financing amount.
A SaaS Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to help you coordinate hiring, track applications and manage candidates through your recruiting pipeline. Startup tier allows 3 open jobs at any time.
A SaaS Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to help you coordinate hiring, track applications and manage candidates through your recruiting pipeline. Free tier allows one open job posting at a time.
An extremely thorough study of startups that provides insight about the characteristics of successful founding teams. Specifically the article covers topics like cofounder dynamics and self-care.
An interactive questionnaire to help you and your co-founders allocate initial equity fairly. A good way to use this is to have each founder fill it out separately and compare answers.
YCombinator’s advice on setting co-founder equity. tl;dr: Unless there is a very good reason, set cofounder equity equally and use a 4 year vesting schedule.
An interactive guide designed to help reduce friction, manage conflict, and improve collaboration in co-founding teams. Includes sections on personal motivations, working style, and partnership.
150+ links to take-home tests for engineering hires. Each test is categorized by language, job function, and seniority. Free as of the time of review.
Self-reported salary and benefit packages, mainly for software roles. Data is more complete for Bay Area companies and large firms, but worth using as a guide.
An analysis of founder salaries for companies at pre-seed through Series A, from OpenVC (and drawing data from Carta and other sources. tl;dr : In the U.S. $50k at pre-seed, $100k at seed, $150-$200k at Series A.