My impression was that in the US you get compensated pretty nicely while in a startup. The whole idea is to get funded so that you can attract talent with crazy salaries. Or did I get something wrong?
It varies a lot based on the stage of company you are joining. Very small startups often pay relatively little in cash and rely on equity to attract talent, because the early stage hires are at least theoretically interested in the vision and potential upside of the business growing, and cashflow is tight at early stage companies.
Larger, later stage startups tend to rely less on equity and more on cash because the equity gets pretty diluted pretty quickly - there’s an awkward middle ground where there may still be plenty of uncertainty about whether the business will survive to an exit/IPO/etc despite some success, but where any shares you got aren’t necessarily enough to make up for low salary if one of those things happens. That middle ground is where large cash comp makes the most sense.
But broadly speaking, yes, tech startup salaries in the US trend high.
Larger, later stage startups tend to rely less on equity and more on cash because the equity gets pretty diluted pretty quickly - there’s an awkward middle ground where there may still be plenty of uncertainty about whether the business will survive to an exit/IPO/etc despite some success, but where any shares you got aren’t necessarily enough to make up for low salary if one of those things happens. That middle ground is where large cash comp makes the most sense.
But broadly speaking, yes, tech startup salaries in the US trend high.