[dpritchett]

It’s a bit of a class thing, isn’t it?

Independently wealthy folks can stay in the game longer without needing to extract a lot of cash compensation in the company’s early years.

[steveklabnik]

This is true in the abstract, but we're talking about a salary of $207,264 in this case. You don't need to be independently wealthy to make it on our salary.

[benreesman]

It's still a class thing. With the CoL in most SWE-heavy metros and the outright war on engineer pricing power over the last few years?

Just about any engineer who isnt independently wealthy is:

- recovering from layoffs and a period of unemployment at a high-COL cost structure

- facing layoffs with the above salients

- facing an imperative to insulate their fucking house with cash for their turn in the above crosshairs

Competence and a willingness to work hard stopped equalling access to basic necessities in November of 2022 - February of 2023, depending on how you count, and inflation has savaged a notional 200k.

"200k is plenty to live on" is rich, well-connected guy talk in 2025.

[Aurornis]

Exactly. It’s also important to know that they support remote work, so these salaries really are not bad at all. For someone in a non-tech city who doesn’t want to move this would be a great startup job.

My only reservation is that I’ve interviewed with or worked for multiple companies that made some claim about paying everyone the same and there was always some loophole: The company might have a fixed base pay but then use very different equity grants. One company claimed to give everyone the same base comp and equity but then it was discovered that some people were getting huge annual “guaranteed bonuses” that were effectively base compensation. It has left me tired of seeing companies push the idea of everyone being paid the same while not being open about the entire compensation structure.

EDIT: To be 100% clear, I don’t know what Oxide’s entire comp structure looks like. The examples above were for past companies I worked for.

[trhway]

>It’s a bit of a class thing, isn’t it?

reminded - the "amateur" (vs. paid "professional") requirement in Olympic and other sports, i.e. participation for the sake of only pure sport spirit, back then came from the aristocracy who could invest a lot of time in those sports without having to take care of making a living.

And when wealthy execs and founders tell what they want people who is interested in the mission/vision/whatever other than money - well, it is the same class thing. The ones who need money naturally can't have the required purity of vision as it is clouded by that lowly need for money.

[givemeethekeys]

As long as the equity grant is the same as the founders, I as an independently wealthy person am happy to join the team that gives everyone the same salary.

Because, you know, you better have the same amount of skin in the game as I do.