> Not being able to pay enough for great candidates is a common problem for startups, and we’ve already had to accept that some very strong potential teammates won’t even consider us, given enormous salaries at established tech companies. But by doing the legwork to make sure we’re competitive within our cohort, we believe we’ll have enough great candidates who want to work at a company of our stage and size.

Recruiters and managers out there: I read "competitive" compensation as somewhere around median compensation. That will be attractive to undercompensated employees and employees in their early careers. It's hard to get good candidates to leave current roles without some sort of pay bump (20%, say?) unless there's some sort of serious dysfunction or mismatch with their current employers.

Daily's plan is to shoot for median-ish compensation and get "enough great candidates" to reach the next phase of growth. I'm glad they're planning on revisiting in a year or so, though it's easy to kid yourself. Especially when you're taking what current employees are willing to tell you as proof positive. For one, selection bias is certainly happening. Also, in my experience, people tell you what you want to hear. Daily employees that are significantly unhappy with compensation are a bad fit for Daily now given the blanket compensation policy. The best way to address that is to discretely look for other offers.