As AI talent salaries soar into the stratosphere—with new graduates commanding $200K+ and Meta dishing out $100M+ compensation packages—many early-stage founders are wondering: How can you build a frontier technology company when single individuals are getting paid well more than the average Series A total financing?
As a partner at Bison Ventures, I back founders working in deep tech, particularly those using AI. I’ve seen firsthand the challenges startup teams are experiencing competing with Big Tech compensation packages flush with stock options. Assuming the only way to win is to outbid is a losing strategy. Here’s the advice I share with founders.
In this piece (for paid subscribers only), you will learn:
- Why your company mission is more important than ever
- The one type of AI expert you don’t need to try to recruit
- How you can use compensation strategically even without Big Tech resources
1. Be honest about which AI talent you actually need
While many early-stage founders believe they need a top AI researcher, the reality is . . . they don’t. What most teams really need are great AI engineers, focused less on fundamental theory and more on fine-tuning existing models, rapidly adopting new libraries and approaches, and ultimately shipping high-quality products that they can iterate quickly on with customer feedback.
This does not mean relaxing the bar on quality. What it does mean is being incredibly thoughtful about job descriptions and understanding what you actually need. The best teams will be laser-focused on where innovating in their technology stack actually moves the needle and where smart integration of existing tools is enough.
2. Stay lean and comp well
On a long enough time horizon, it’s reasonable to believe the cost to write software will drop to near-zero. We are already seeing co-pilots and coding agents drive massive increases in productivity for top users. If your best engineers can now contribute to your codebase at 3x the rate they might have two to three years ago, it means your org chart and hiring plans likely need a reassessment. All organizations get less, not more, efficient as headcount scales.
It also means the people you have likely deserve better compensation! Make sure that their productivity gains are reflected in their pay.
By adopting tools that allow for drastic increases in productivity and hiring individuals that embrace them, you not only free up room in the budget to invest in the best hires, but you can also keep your company at a Goldilocks size for longer. When your company is neither too big nor too small, you can move more quickly and effectively than competitors.
3. When you can’t compete on cash, lean on equity—generously
But bear in mind: Equity only motivates if candidates believe the company can be massive. Everyone, to some extent, is chasing a Figma-esque IPO moment.
That means you have to make the case that your company’s equity offers a genuine shot at life-changing upside. Back up your pitch with a clear story about the big vision for what you will become, your edge, and why you’re the team to win. This brings us to . . .
4. Lean into the ‘why’
The most promising candidates will optimize for more than just salary; they’ll optimize for mission. For the same reason engineers are turning down multi-hundred million-dollar pay packages because they would rather work at the frontier with Thinking Machines Lab than sell ads for Instagram Reels, you too have an edge that is more valuable than money. Find it and exploit it.
Perhaps you’re working to cure a complex disease or eliminating the need for humans to do unsafe work. Your mission matters for more than just a slide on your pitch deck or tagline on a site. Don’t underestimate the power of a personal connection to the problem you are solving to tip the scale in your favor, like the talented robotics engineer who joins an AgTech startup because their family ran a farm in California’s Central Valley or the AI researcher who joins your TechBio company because they have a close friend impacted by the disease areas you’re working to solve.
5. Sell personal impact
Roles at larger companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft are definitionally narrower in scope, and therefore, individual impact. Most engineers own a slice of a slice of a project.
At a startup, on a lean and agile team, scope is limitless. One person’s work can make or break the product; one idea can redefine a road map. Remember, before ChatGPT became the fastest growing consumer product of all time, it was originally a hackathon project shipped within 10 days by a team that was relatively early-career. For the right candidates, that high degree of responsibility isn’t a deterrent—it’s the allure. Lean into the messiness of early-stage building, where one’s impact is only limited by an individual’s creativity and drive. This will attract the exact people you want: those driven by autonomy and impact.
While it may seem daunting competing with Big Tech for AI talent, the truth is that you don’t have to.
You can win by being crystal clear about the skills you actually need, offering equity tied to a believable and outsized upside, showing conviction, and leaning into what draws people to startups in the first place: purpose and impact.
Amidst the AI talent war, the founders who win aren’t the ones who spend the most. They’re the ones who can persuade the best people (the right people) that the risk—and the reward—are worth it.
