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As a founder, getting your team’s pay right can feel like a guessing game – but it doesn’t have to be. Offering competitive salaries is key to attracting and keeping the right talent, but it can be tricky to know what’s fair in the fast-paced world of UK startups.
At SeedLegals, we’ve got access to real salary data from thousands of startups just like yours. In this post, we’ll share the latest benchmarks so you can make informed decisions to keep your team and your (fairly compensated) CFO happy.
Whether you’re making your first hire or expanding your team post-fundraise, understanding salary benchmarks helps you stay competitive. Knowing the going rate for key roles in your industry can guide your budgeting and hiring strategies, helping you avoid overpaying or undercutting offers. Plus, if you’re fundraising, having a clear sense of your future team’s compensation will help give more structure to your financial planning.
About our data
In this report, we dive into the 74,000+ UK employment contracts created on SeedLegals in the past two years. We’re sharing the median average annual salary across a range of job roles.
How do we define small, medium and large companies for this report?
🌱 Small - between 1 and 5 employees
🪴 Medium - between 5 and 30 employees
🌳 Large - over 30 employees
The company size is based on the headcount at the time the contract is signed, regardless of how much the company grows afterwards.
🌱 Small - between 1 and 5 employees
🪴 Medium - between 5 and 30 employees
🌳 Large - over 30 employees
The company size is based on the headcount at the time the contract is signed, regardless of how much the company grows afterwards.
Company size really does matter when it comes to salaries. You’ll see big differences between what small and large companies offer, especially for roles like CTO. That’s why we’ve broken our data down by company size. This way, you can easily spot how salaries change as your business grows, and make sure you’re staying competitive at every stage.
Salaries are just one half of the compensation equation
Equity also plays a huge role in the compensation package at early-stage startups. It’s very common for the founding team and the earliest hires to receive a smaller salary but a larger equity stake in the company’s future. Stay tuned for a future report that factors share options into the question of what fair compensation looks like.
In the meantime, download our free share options report to see how UK startups structure their schemes.
Equity also plays a huge role in the compensation package at early-stage startups. It’s very common for the founding team and the earliest hires to receive a smaller salary but a larger equity stake in the company’s future. Stay tuned for a future report that factors share options into the question of what fair compensation looks like.
In the meantime, download our free share options report to see how UK startups structure their schemes.
How much to pay your executive team
In most startups, the executive team is often made up of the founding members; the people who were there from day one, taking the risks and making the foundational decisions that shape the business. The CEO is likely the founder, while roles like CTO and COO are often filled by close, trusted team members who’ve been part of the startup’s journey from the start. Unlike later hires, the exec team is invested on multiple levels: they’re not just building the business, they’re building their future.
That said, even founders need to pay themselves and their leadership team competitively. If you’re planning to pitch for angel or institutional investment, investors will want to know that their capital is going into building a successful business – not paying (what might seem to them) inflated salaries.
In the graph below, we reveal the median salaries for the key exec roles in UK startups, so you can see what’s typical for founders and their core team across different company sizes.
How much to pay department heads and other key leadership roles
Here’s what UK startups are paying on average for key leadership roles. These positions are critical as startups scale, helping to drive growth, build teams, and shape the future of the business.
How much to pay your tech team
The tech team is the backbone of most startups, especially those driven by innovation and product development. From building and maintaining the product to scaling infrastructure as the company grows, the roles within this team, particularly engineering and product leadership, are essential.
How much to pay your product team
The product team is the creative engine that shapes a startup’s offerings, with roles like product managers and product designers working together to build solutions that resonate with users. Beyond designing and managing features, they collaborate closely with tech, sales, and customer support to ensure the product evolves with market needs.
How much base salary to pay your sales and marketing teams
A startup’s sales and marketing teams often wear many hats to drive growth and visibility. In addition to their core responsibilities of attracting customers and closing deals, these teams frequently plug gaps across the business – whether it’s helping with customer support, shaping product strategies or managing partnerships.
In sales and marketing roles, base salaries are often lower because a significant part of compensation comes from bonuses and commission. These performance-based incentives reward team members for meeting or exceeding targets, making their overall earnings potential higher. The numbers below show base salary only, with bonuses the total compensation may be significantly more.
More expert insights from SeedLegals data
Keen for more expert analysis into what’s really going on across UK startups? Check out more of our free, exclusive reports:
🥧 Options report: option scheme trends, decoded by our experts
🤝 Termometer: the UK’s deepest analysis of early-stage deal terms
💰Funding report: how much are startups raising and how?
Keen for more expert analysis into what’s really going on across UK startups? Check out more of our free, exclusive reports:
🥧 Options report: option scheme trends, decoded by our experts
🤝 Termometer: the UK’s deepest analysis of early-stage deal terms
💰Funding report: how much are startups raising and how?
Talk to the startup experts
Get ready for growth with the all-in-one platform for startups. On SeedLegals, you can:
- Build and manage your cap table
- Create essential contracts, such as employment agreements, NDAs and IP Assignments
- Lock in SEIS/EIS tax relief for investors
- Take investment through a funding round or raise smaller sums of money with SeedFAST or Instant Investment
- Create and manage option schemes to compensate your team with equity
- Claim a portion of your dev expenses back through R&D tax relief
Start free for 7 days or use the form below to choose a time to chat to our friendly experts.
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