Here’s a scenario Martyn Bassett described from a recent search, and it’s more common than most founders would like to admit.
A client set a top-end budget of roughly $370K for a product leadership hire. Two weeks in, they got cold feet. “Actually, that’s too much. We’re going to go 40 below.” Two weeks after that, having seen too few qualified candidates at the lower number, they reversed again: “Well, actually, we’re going to go back to 370.”
Nobody did anything wrong here, exactly. But six weeks and two direction changes were spent finding out what the market already knew. That’s the cost of budgeting for a product search without real data going in.
Here’s what Andrew Shaw and Martyn Bassett recommend instead, from our July 8 session on product compensation at venture-backed companies.
Sell scope, not title
Andrew’s first piece of advice for founders: stop leading with the job title and start leading with what the person will actually own.
“You’ve got to sell scope, not title. Somebody who’s a PM at a large company owns a slice of the product, like a slice sometimes of a slice. You’re setting a product direction from AI features from zero. You’re going to own this. You’re going to move this forward.”
The distinction matters because top candidates aren’t comparing titles across offers; they’re comparing scope. A VP of Product role that’s really a slice of a mature roadmap will lose to a Head of Product role that’s genuinely zero-to-one, even at a lower base. Lead with what’s real.
Price equity honestly, not aspirationally
This is where Andrew sees the most self-inflicted damage. “Early stage pitches always overinflate the story around equity,” he said. “Show real numbers, talk about last round’s valuations, dilution assumptions, comparable outcomes.”
Candidates who’ve been through a few of these processes can tell within one conversation whether the equity story is grounded or aspirational. An inflated pitch doesn’t just fail to close the gap on cash; it costs you credibility on everything else you say afterward.
Move faster than anyone else to an offer
The smallest-sounding piece of advice may be the highest-leverage one. “Big companies’ candidates get lost in the minutiae of multiple layers,” Andrew said. “They wait three weeks between interviews, then they maybe get an offer that they interviewed somewhere two months before. Earlier stage companies profess that they move faster than others in their categories, and that’s how they win. Do it with your recruitment process.”
Martyn’s framing for this is a phrase we often use: “Time kills deals.” A candidate who’s excited after round one and hears nothing for two weeks doesn’t stay excited. Their mind goes where anyone’s would: they’re probably not interested. The energy you built in the first conversation is a depreciating asset.
Get real numbers before you set the range
The underlying fix for the $370K story isn’t a better guess. It’s not guessing at all. “Get real data, real facts,” Andrew said, “and really have a conversation, or look towards our salary insights that we publish on our website and through our LinkedIn page. It’s not about looking at lists. It’s not about trying to use old data. It’s about having conversations with the real people who talk to people doing these roles each and every day.”
Don’t ignore geography, but don’t over-anchor on it either
If your budget is built around Bay Area comp and you’re not actually restricted to Bay Area talent, you may be solving the wrong problem. Andrew’s take: “There is a premium in the Bay Area. There’s a premium in New York City. There’s a premium in London. The Canadian market is creeping up to where other areas outside of the Bay Area, New York City are at.”
The real variable isn’t geography, it’s how flexible you actually are. A five-day-in-office mandate in the Bay Area can quietly price you out of your own search. One of our clients had exactly this conversation the day before our session: a mandated five-days-in-office policy, reconsidered on the spot once the question became: “Are you missing great people because of this?” They eased the policy. The best people they were finding weren’t anywhere near the head office.
The optimization that actually works
Heidi Ram’s closing point on this topic is worth sitting with if you’re a founder setting up a search right now: “No matter what’s happening in the industry, one fact is true. If you optimize for talent, you’ll get talent. The minute you start optimizing for something else, you’re going to struggle to get talent.”
Budget realistically, move quickly, and be honest about equity. But underneath all of it, the filter you’re optimizing for is the one thing that actually predicts whether someone says yes.
Setting up a product search and want real numbers instead of a guess? Let’s talk before you spend six weeks finding out what the market already knew. Book a call with us.
This post is drawn from our July 8, 2026 live session, “What Venture-Backed Companies Are Actually Really Paying for Product Roles,” with Martyn Bassett, Heidi Ram, and Andrew Shaw. Watch the full recording at hs.mbassett.com/product-salary-webinar.