[danielvinson]

I think you and most of the other commenters here are analyzing this correctly, but from a very different perspective than me - I've only worked at small companies (less than ~80 people) at varying levels (Junior Eng, Senior Eng, Founder), but in my experience at these companies, you solve the retention problem by giving engineers things to work on that they /actually/ want to work on, hiring people who are not strongly motivated by money, and doing work as a company that is ethical and progresses the world.

At least half of my coworkers could move over to a similar position at a FAANG with no difficulty and make over double what they are now, but I have no doubt in my mind that if any of them did that, it would not be for compensation.

[htormey]

Yeah, stuff like leveling and role changes become issues mainly at companies with large engineering teams. I.e FAANG, MSFT, etc.

In my opinion the main reasons to work at a startup are A) it’s growing ridiculously fast and you expect your equity to be worth something. B) your learning. I.e you like the technology or the space or your new to tech. C) you like the people.

Hence retention and recruiting for startups is a totally different ball game.

Other small non venture backed tech companies have a different set of challenges in this regard.