To lure top AI talent, startups are turning to cold hard cash

forward-deployed engineers—people who embed with customers to teach them how to use AI.On top of generous base salaries, Zhang has also seen companies offering profit-sharing agreements. Say someone is put in charge of a particular business vertical; they might now get promised 4% of its profits.Chris Vasquez, CEO of Quantum, which recruits teams for high-growth startups, says it’s no longer uncommon for startup workers in certain roles to be making the same total cash compensation as seasoned workers at companies like Meta and Google.“Prior to this, I’d probably never seen anyone over $300,000 on base salaries at seed companies,” says Vasquez.

Now, “They’re able to take home FAANG [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google] level cash comp.”He’s also started to see performance-based cash bonuses in a small number of companies. Upon hitting a particular milestone, a cash bonus might equal 30% of a worker’s salary, he says.Some computer-science majors from top-tier schools with as little as one or two years of experience at premier companies are receiving salary offers between $250,000 and $300,000, he says. A couple of years ago, those base salaries would have been closer to $170,000.

One math-competition winner with nine months of professional experience was offered a $400,000 base for a software-engineering role, Vasquez adds.Startup employees used to have to wait for an exit or an IPO to realize cash from their equity, but they can get that sooner now, too, through tender offers where investors can come in and buy their shares. Tender offers have long existed, but they’ve become more common in recent years.“Most of the late-stage private companies that you can think of have done some sort of liquidity event for