{"id":296472,"date":"2026-01-09T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/?p=296472"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:51:00","slug":"startup-compensation-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/?p=296472","title":{"rendered":"Startup Compensation Trends: Five Straight Years of Total Cash Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Startup compensation trends continued their upward climb in 2025. This data drop analyzes total cash compensation trends across four key positions &#8211; CEOs, CSOs, Engineering Managers and Operation Managers &#8211;\u00a0at startups that have raised between $50 and $109.9 million in total financing. Thelander <a href=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/private-company-compensation-data-j-thelander-consulting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data<\/a> shows\u00a0that total cash increased in 2025 for all four positions at both the median and 75th percentile. It continues the overall trend of increasing total cash since 2021.\u00a0<br><br><strong>Key Findings for YoY Growth (2024 to 2025):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"23\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2_b3b91457-6065-d89f-0e4b-b69cfd41f221.png\" width=\"28\">At&nbsp;the&nbsp;<strong>median<\/strong>, Operations Managers saw the highest percentage of growth from 2024 to 2025 &#8211; 16% &#8211; outpacing higher-level positions which ranged from 2-5%&nbsp;in growth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Operations Manager<\/strong>: +16%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CSO<\/strong>: +4.6%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CEO<\/strong>: +4%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Director Engineering<\/strong>: +1.9%\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"23\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2_b3b91457-6065-d89f-0e4b-b69cfd41f221.png\" width=\"28\">At the&nbsp;<strong>75th percentile<\/strong>, Director of Engineering led with 11% growth, followed closely by CSOs at 10.6%:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Director Engineering: +11%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>CSO: +10.6%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Operations Manager: +7%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>CEO: +1.7%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/63601c00-eae5-8b24-e27a-30af011b8a8d.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/cafc2bc4-2e13-42bb-8259-e6982cebf974.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Takeaways for Five-Year Performance (2021 to 2025):&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Over the past five years, Operations Manager delivered the largest percentage increase at both percentiles, with 26% growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>CSOs ranked second with a 16.9% growth at the median and 21.9% at the 75th percentile.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2afe4186-3252-551b-3cf7-9f1926da00de.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/jthelander.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/a7588b65-b674-c878-e339-e8ada1a17ab9.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Find out how your current compensation compares to real-time market data by filling out the no-cost Thelander Private Company Compensation Survey today. You will receive access to market data for every job title you input data for &#8211; the more you give, the more you get.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"http:\/\/survey.jthelander.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click Here to Participate Today<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Startup compensation trends continued their upward climb in 2025. This data drop analyzes total cash compensation trends across four key positions &#8211; CEOs, CSOs, Engineering Managers and Operation Managers &#8211;\u00a0at startups that have raised between $50 and $109.9 million in total financing. Thelander data shows\u00a0that total cash increased in 2025 for all four positions at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-296472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-drops","tag-private-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brightturn.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}