new year, new job, new salary

what you can expect to make at a seed startup

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TL;DR

  • Are you interested in joining a seed-stage startup next year? These are the salary ranges you should expect. 

  • Enter the TDSU holiday contest before it’s too late!

  • How sweet it isn’t! The uber-popular Honey app got called out for allegedly ripping off customers and influencers.

Let's talk shop 🔧

How much will you make at a seed-stage startup?

If you’re one of the 52% of workers actively seeking a new job right now, you might be evaluating companies you’ve never heard of…including small seed-stage startups. 

But since trying to get salary information can be like pulling teeth, it can be super hard to figure out which jobs or companies are worth your while. Plus, seed stages startups can be notoriously risky to work at because they’re not well-known and are still developing product-market fit. 

Kruze Consulting (a firm that specializes in venture-backed startups) crunched the numbers to uncover average pay for these companies. Use this data to make smarter money moves in 2025 👇

Executive/C-suite:

  • CEO: $132k

  • CTO: $134k

  • COO/Operations: $135k

  • Product/CPO: $149k

Sales (base):

  • Entry: $50-80k in SF/ $45-72k elsewhere

  • Mid Level: $80-110k in SF/ $70-100k elsewhere

  • Senior: $110-150k in SF/ $95-135k elsewhere

Marketing & Ops:

  • Head of Marketing: $200-325k in SF/ $150-270k elsewhere

  • Mid-Level Marketing: $100-$175k in SF/ $80-145k elsewhere

  • Customer Support: $65-100k in SF/ $60-94k elsewhere

  • Assistant: $50-150k in SF/ $39-75k elsewhere

You probably noticed that some of these ranges are pretty huge and differ based on location…That’s because salaries often depend on leadership’s priorities for that company stage. 

A quick gut check to make sure you can command a bigger salary: ask the hiring team how important the role is for the company’s growth.

Are you one of the 52% of workers actively looking for a new job?

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🖥️ What else is happening in tech?

  • Stars are just like us, except richer and more well-connected, with disposable income to invest as VCs

  • A new online-only Arizona charter school will have AI-taught curriculums. What an…interesting…experiment. 

  • Amazon delays it’s five-days-a-week RTO policy in some locations due to not having enough space for workers. 🫠

2025 Prediction: A Surge of Self-Serve CTV Buyers

Roku predicts that 2025 will be a breakthrough year for self-serve CTV advertising. Roku Ads Manager makes it easy to integrate CTV into your 2025 marketing mix. Easily segment your target audience, optimize campaigns in real-time, and drive conversions with interactive ad formats and shoppable ads with a Shopify integration. Roku Ads Manager makes CTV advertising accessible and impactful for businesses of any size.

This is your last chance to enter the TDSU holiday contest!

Is referring too much hassle (aka your friends aren’t cool)? Skip the work and find all these 👆 and more in our shop. Get 10% off with code: SEGMENT10

Let’s dish 🤭

Honey, I scammed the customers!

Do you know about the browser extension called Honey? It’s popular for helping shoppers find deals and updated promo codes where they’re shopping online. 

Well, a Youtuber, MegaLag, dropped a bombshell video earlier this week called Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam which already has over 9 million views 🤯

Here’s what Honey’s being accused of:

  • Ignoring better deals to prioritize Honey’s partnerships

  • Not automatically applying the best discount at checkout (despite claiming to)

  • Swapping out affiliate links for its own attribution links to take credit for sales

Now the folks at Honey, for their part, aren’t shying away from the claims. Paypal VP of corporate communications, Josh Criscoe, told The Verge: “Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution.” 

Which basically means…yep, we do that. What of it? ✌️

🫖 What's the tea?

  •  This year was tough…so here’s a good news roundup from 2024!

  • 👀 Someone’s been putting giant googly eyes on sculptures in Bend, Oregon and they’re really, really cute. 

  • Feeling stressed? Maybe it’s time to learn about #slowliving.

See you next week! 👋 

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