Business-side professional with a strong technical background. Some CTOs may be in a place and have an interest where they are willing to trade salary for equity, some won’t be. While it appears that the businessperson (usually with the money behind the venture) is more important, bear in mind, any success beyond ‘average’ is due to the brilliant ideas of your partner – the one you are funding. Responsible for the long-range direction of an organization's technology function. If you just need a CTO then it’s in the 1-4% range. How much does a CTO make in the United States? Visit PayScale to research chief technology officer (cto) salaries by city, experience, skill, employer and more. This really depends on the type of person you’re looking to hire. The CTO directs the strategic design, acquisition, management, and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure. They’re only equal partners if they are equally willing to share responsibility for the downside as they are in sharing in the upside. Technical debt is built up over periods that things are done wrong or incompletely and must be paid with interest to correct them some point down the line. The total cash compensation, which includes base, and annual incentives, can vary anywhere from $232,600 to $370,900 with the average total cash compensation of $291,500. A Startup CTO in your area makes on average $132,856 per year, or $3,074 (2%) more than the national average annual salary of $129,782. These charts show the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of CTO in the United States. –Amish Shah: Entrepreneur, Investor, Advisor, Strategist for startups. An alternative is to find some part-timers as I did (if you do not believe the CTO candidate can build the platform completely) and offer them smaller pieces (that might also add up to 15-20%). I was at $220K + >=3% at my last two startups. Book – Greg McKeown – Published 2014, 236 pages. If you’re curious what to expect, we recommend playing with the salaries and equity tool by AngelList or researching salary ranges at specific companies on Glassdoor. When the day comes, there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances that will impact the percentage breakdown, but if both CEO & CTO get started around same time, do not let the fact that it was your idea get in the way of properly compensating your developer. Not the job you're looking for? Benefits. How much can he do that you can’t without him. The average CTO salary in the United States is $247,400 as of October 28, 2020, but the range typically falls between $207,500 and $289,400.Salary ranges can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession. Lehi, UT, IBM - Founder & Chief Evangelist Officer @ Rank ’em. The amount of equity that you give him depends on him & you. Invite a friend and earn £500 when they get hired! Recruiter Start Hiring. Individualize employee pay based on unique job requirements and personal qualifications. –John Lonergan: brings more than 20 years of industry experience in the fields of diagnostics, medical technology and software. In that event, anywhere from 1-5% is reasonable. I think you want to share equity generously with the “ground floor” team. You tie this to a three year vesting schedule so if they bolt after a year they lose their stock. The Complete Guide to A/B Testing (Part 1), 5 Free SEO Templates to Jumpstart your Google Visibility, SUPER EARLY BIRD OFFER: SEO Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs. Data based on salary earnings of 10,000+ candidates and job offers from 100+ VC backed startups on Kandidate, including: Has acquired the business acumen and leadership experience to become a top function or division head. Why the 33 percent, because if you are less than 3 people and cannot survive w/o a technical/co founder/CTO then they are worth it. Typically reports to Chief Information Officer or Chief Executive Officer. Salary.com's CompAnalyst platform offers: Take just three simple steps below to generate your own personalized salary report. If you merely hire a CTO to run a dev team to build what you have envisioned, that’s another matter. Search thousands of open positions to find your next opportunity. You need a developer / CTO to get anywhere (it seems). You cannot raise outside capital in today’s market without MVP and traction. – Jeff Kesselman: 25 year veteran of the computer game industry with a degree in both computer science and film production. Lastly, if TTM is critical (not enough cash to bootstrap for too long), then 15-20% might be your only option.