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.
Startup salary and equity database
A very comprehensive database of hires made by startups including job title, salary, equity, location, and company information (size, fundraise stage, and valuation).
Best Practices
$0.00
Free Tier?
Example org chart for Series A, B, and C tech companies
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.
Best Practices
$0.00
Free Tier?
YCombinator Startup School’s finding a co-founder podcast
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.
Video
$0.00
Free Tier?
Measuring engineering organizations as a CTO
A thorough overview from Will Larson on managing engineering organizations. Likely applies more to larger/later stage startups.
Documents
Free Tier?
How to size an employee option pool
Carta’s guide based on benchmark data for sizing an option pool at each round.
Best Practices
Free Tier?
Carta equity online course
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.
Self-Service Tools
$0.00
Free Tier?
Founder equity split trends
Carta’s Director of Insights shares how 18,000 pre-seed and seed-stage startups split their equity.
Documents
$0.00
Free Tier?
How to Write a Job Ad (That People Actually Want to Apply For)
Learn how to write an effective job posting that respects candidates.
Documents
Free Tier?
Salary.com guide
Indeed Salary Search
Find salary ranges for common job titles. Includes a location filter.
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
FounderList Co-founder matching
Community for matching co-founders and early-stage employees
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
CofounderLab
A marketplace to connect with potential cofounders and early-stage employees.
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
Co-Founder Identification Playbook
From First Round Capital. A 50-question checklist and accompanying article that provides a framework for identifying a co-founder fit.
Documents
Free Tier?
Founder's Guide to Equity Compensation
Constantly-updated guidebook with recommendations and best practices for equity comp in startups
Documents
$20.00
Free Tier?
Upwork
Marketplace for project or ongoing staffing. Hourly and fixed-fee options. Tends to be more expensive but higher quality than Fiverr.
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
Fiverr
Marketplace for spot project talent (design, development, copywriting, marketing support, etc
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
JustWorks
Finding a co-founder
How big should an employee option pool be?
Data from Pitchbook's survey of company option pools, broken out by stage of company and financing amount.
Documents
Free Tier?
JazzHR Applicant Tracking System
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.
Self-Service Tools
$468.00
Free Tier?
Breezy HR Applicant Tracking System
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.
Self-Service Tools
Free Tier?
Google’s Effective Founders Research Project
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.
Documents
Free Tier?
Gust Cofounder equity split guide
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.
Self-Service Tools
$0.00
Free Tier?
YCombinator advice on co-founder equity split
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.
Best Practices
Free Tier?
Google Launchpad Founder’s User Guide
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.
Documents
Free Tier?
Curated library of developer take-home tests
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.
Documents
Free Tier?
Levels.fyi salary ranges
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.
Self-Service Tools
$0.00
Free Tier?
What should founders pay themselves?
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.
Best Practices
$0.00
Free Tier?