[artemk]

You're correct about start ups having serious problems that need solving and a good match in a candidate having the skills to do it.

The rest is far from it. The value of those skills to the start up is not a secret. Posting a range in a job listing doesn't convey to a potential candidate what his skills are valued at.

How much you deserve is determined by the biggest offer you can get. Compensation packages for early stage start ups aren't "cheap" as many on this thread tend to call. If all you care about is the salary, then early stage start ups are simply not for you. This is what I was attempting to convey in my original reply. This isn't a negative thing. If you think equity is worthless (which is how these packages are supplemented for the salary), then instead of getting offended that a start up is trying to rip you off, enjoy working at a bigger company that has the deep pockets for the salary you believe you deserve.

An early stage start up has a very limited amount of funds and time to develop their idea into its next stage. For each idea, there is a very unique combination of time, money, and resources. Paying the salaries benchmarked by companies that have billions at their disposal, will make a start up burn through their small amount of money, without ever having enough resources, in much less time than needed.

Reading about companies like Uber, Dropbox, Pinterest, and other big names get fortune-level valuations leads to misconceptions that these companies are still start ups and other start ups have the same capital.

Early stage start ups are companies you most likely haven't heard of yet. If you listen to a podcast course from Stanford by Sam Altman, you'll learn that it takes many years to build up a start up.

All this leads me back to my original statement: if you're looking for top-level salaries, don't care about equity, and think that believing in the product/vision is a joke, you shouldn't be looking at job postings on Hacker News.

[wonnage]

Ya'll complain about how hard it is to hire and at the same time brag about how it's about the experience, baby, forget the salary!

You're basically self-selecting for financially stable people with no dependents which... yeah, that's what the startup world looks like, with its attendant diversity baggage.

[artemk]

Half our team has kids, and most of our team comes from a variety of countries half way around the world.

99% of candidates don't even get into the salary discussion phase. It's hard to hire because candidates think they know more than they really do. Some have 5 years experiences, many have 1 year experience five times.

[obstacle1]

>99% of candidates don't even get into the salary discussion phase.

So these are all people who have agreed to undertake your presumably time-consuming interview process without even a hint about financial compensation at the end of the tunnel?

If so, it seems extremely likely that you are pre-screening out a huge pool of the most talented and intelligent developers. It takes a special kind of brainwashing to agree to jump through those kinds of hoops for a prize that is kept secret until the end of the process.

[artemk]

It's far from a secret. Lack of discussions means the compensation package isn't negotiated first.

[dllthomas]

Eh, the experience with interviewing can also pay dividends...