I’m (formally) kicking this blog off with a conversation I had that was indicative of the current market for talent in traditional (read: non crypto) technology businesses. One of our Heads of HR recently called me to gut check some numbers from their annual budget prep.

In a normal year, the company would issue pro forma raises of around 2%. Due to fear of high attrition, this people leader was advocating 10-20% raises across the board and had validated those numbers with people leaders at multiple companies who were doing the same. The CEO was naturally reluctant, but not because they felt it was too expensive. Their position was that a 10% raise wasn’t going to move the needle. If someone wanted to leave they were going to do so regardless, and when they do, they can likely find someone to pay them 50% more than what they were making pre-pandemic.

At this point, everyone knows the US just experienced its largest single year increase in inflation in 30+ years. My hypothesis is that in tech, the numbers were likely much larger. Fred Wilson pointed out one symptom of tech inflation earlier this week in his blog post on $100m Seed Rounds.

While that dynamic might be problematic for investors, it should be tantalizing for skilled job seekers. The end result is that small startups are now amassing large war chests that they can use to make offers that are highly competitive with Facebook, Amazon, Google, and so on. I.E. start up wage inflation. But most companies aren’t just handing out new market rate offers to existing and applying talent - you have to ask for it.

So, if you’re looking, and you’re confident in your skillset, don’t be shy. Leave the adage at the door of asking for 10% more than you need to get what you want. Instead, demand 50% more than what you thought you deserved to get what you’re currently worth. It may feel uncomfortable but, now is your single best opportunity to drastically increase your wage earning capacity. Not every company will say yes. But many will.

I’m (formally) kicking this blog off with a conversation I had that was indicative of the current market for talent in traditional (read: non crypto) technology businesses. One of our Heads of HR recently called me to gut check some numbers from their annual budget prep.

In a normal year, the company would issue pro forma raises of around 2%. Due to fear of high attrition, this people leader was advocating 10-20% raises across the board and had validated those numbers with people leaders at multiple companies who were doing the same. The CEO was naturally reluctant, but not because they felt it was too expensive. Their position was that a 10% raise wasn’t going to move the needle. If someone wanted to leave they were going to do so regardless, and when they do, they can likely find someone to pay them 50% more than what they were making pre-pandemic.

At this point, everyone knows the US just experienced its largest single year increase in inflation in 30+ years. My hypothesis is that in tech, the numbers were likely much larger. Fred Wilson pointed out one symptom of tech inflation earlier this week in his blog post on $100m Seed Rounds.

While that dynamic might be problematic for investors, it should be tantalizing for skilled job seekers. The end result is that small startups are now amassing large war chests that they can use to make offers that are highly competitive with Facebook, Amazon, Google, and so on. I.E. start up wage inflation. But most companies aren’t just handing out new market rate offers to existing and applying talent - you have to ask for it.

So, if you’re looking, and you’re confident in your skillset, don’t be shy. Leave the adage at the door of asking for 10% more than you need to get what you want. Instead, demand 50% more than what you thought you deserved to get what you’re currently worth. It may feel uncomfortable but, now is your single best opportunity to drastically increase your wage earning capacity. Not every company will say yes. But many will.