You can get a rough idea for CTO roles from various annual salary surveys that are done by some of the big recruiters and a few boutique firms. Some of these have granular detail on size and location of firm.
Looking at one from La Fosse (one of the boutique firms), their numbers for perm CTO salaries are:
Established brand £150-250k
Startup/scale up £130-160k
I found that rates in this survey seemed a bit on the high side given the current market, something I've seen in some other similar 2023/24 surveys.
One of the key variables will be at what stage is the startup at. Sifted is a well known startup information site published by the FT. Data is from 2021:
Profitable & Sustainable: Up to £175k
Series B: £75-95k
Series A: £50-100k
If you want some more accurate numbers there are a couple of other websites out there that have data specifically for startup remuneration but I can't remember them unfortunately.
I guess the biggest variable might be what type of CTO are you and how big is your team? A true CTO will be a senior level leadership position with a significantly higher salary that some startup CTOs who are really just glorified technical leads or devs.
Some kind advice for your next role, make sure you do your detailed research on salary or rates before you even start looking. I find it hard to believe you didn't do this when applying for such a senior role.
Looking at one from La Fosse (one of the boutique firms), their numbers for perm CTO salaries are:
Established brand £150-250k
Startup/scale up £130-160k
I found that rates in this survey seemed a bit on the high side given the current market, something I've seen in some other similar 2023/24 surveys.
One of the key variables will be at what stage is the startup at. Sifted is a well known startup information site published by the FT. Data is from 2021:
Profitable & Sustainable: Up to £175k
Series B: £75-95k
Series A: £50-100k
If you want some more accurate numbers there are a couple of other websites out there that have data specifically for startup remuneration but I can't remember them unfortunately.
I guess the biggest variable might be what type of CTO are you and how big is your team? A true CTO will be a senior level leadership position with a significantly higher salary that some startup CTOs who are really just glorified technical leads or devs.
Some kind advice for your next role, make sure you do your detailed research on salary or rates before you even start looking. I find it hard to believe you didn't do this when applying for such a senior role.
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