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Nguyen: Startups must reserve aggressive compensation for key roles to compete

Tan Nguyen · a16z Podcast | All Things Compensation · Jan 2, 2019 · at 7:26

Tan Nguyen discusses how growing startups can structure competitive compensation packages when competing against tech giants with massive balance sheets.

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“I think what you got to really focus on is trying to hold a general population to a general philosophy, market positioning philosophy, and really think about developing and going after really aggressive comp for key roles, key contributors, and that's how you're able to really, you know, build a, an aggressive and competitive strategy. Because you're not going to be able to compete with the likes of a fifty billion dollar company, right?”

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