[habith]

> many startups in reality do start paying at or above market

I think that's the key phrase here. I don't know if they paid at or above market rate and that would be where I'd start looking before passing judgement.

Your company's job postings suggest "competitive salary and meaningful equity", which is a much better signal than Heyzap's posting[0] i.e. no mention of compensation whatsoever (I personally prefer a salary range to know if the discussion is even worth our collective time).

They're a small startup so the data is incomplete and meaningless, but assuming the one salary posted on Glassdoor ($65-75k for a marketing manager) is accurate, I think it's fair to say that their compensation package was quite low and heavy on equity.

> I'm not too upset about employees who have been making market salaries not getting much out of an acqui-hire

I completely agree with you. If you're getting market or above market salary then equity shouldn't be an issue whatsoever.

[0] https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/software-engineer-heyz...

[1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Heyzap-Salaries-E493011.htm

[phamilton]

If any startups pay high market salaries, it's in ad-tech. There's little "I believe in the product" and frequently tech is boring. The only redeeming quality is they pay well.

That said, this doesn't seem like a successful exit.