Most CTOs discover they're underpaid about three years too late.
The pattern is familiar. You take a role. The offer feels reasonable. You're excited about the challenge. Then you speak to a peer at a conference, or a recruiter calls with a number that makes you blink twice, and you realise you've left £30k on the table.
The problem isn't that you negotiated poorly. The problem is you had no reliable data when it mattered.
Why CTO salary data is worse than useless
Every salary survey you've seen bundles together three entirely different roles under the same title. A CTO at a 15-person startup is doing hands-on architecture. A CTO at a 200-person scaleup is building leadership teams. A CTO at an enterprise is playing politics and sitting on the exec board.
Same title. Different universes. Salaries range from £90k to £250k, and sometimes higher.
The surveys know this, which is why they hedge with enormous ranges. "CTO salaries in the UK range from £85k to £180k depending on company size and sector. "Brilliant. That tells you nothing when you're trying to decide whether £135k plus equity is fair.
What you need is specificity. Company stage, sector, team size, funding status, location weighting. Without those filters, you're flying blind.
The variables that actually move the number
Company stage matters more than almost anything else. A CTO joining pre-product takes more risk and typically accepts lower cash in exchange for meaningful equity. Post-Series A, when there's revenue and a clear runway, cash compensation rises sharply. Post-Series B or in profitable companies, you should expect top-quartile cash.
Team size is the next big lever. Managing five engineers is architecture work with some line management. Managing 30 is organisational design. Managing 80 is pure leadership. Each jump changes the role fundamentally, and the salary should move accordingly.
Sector creates a painful but real divide. Fintech and healthtech companies in London regularly pay 20-30% more than equivalent roles in retail, education, or government. It's not fair. It's not meritocratic. It's just true.
Location still matters, though less than it did. A fully remote CTO role at a London-based company used to command a 15% discount. Now it's closer to 5%, and sometimes there's no discount at all if the company has matured past caring about postcodes.
What equity actually means in the equation
Every early-stage offer tries to sell you on equity as part of total comp. Sometimes this is legitimate. Often it's a way to suppress your cash salary.
Here's the test: if the company is pre-revenue and offering you £100k cash plus 2% equity, that's a real trade-off. You're taking risk, and the equity has a chance of meaning something. If the company is Series B, profitable, and offering you £110k plus 0.3% equity as if that's competitive, they're taking you for a ride.
Equity in most companies will be worth nothing. Equity in some companies will be worth a house deposit. Equity in a tiny number of companies will be life-changing. Price it accordingly. If you need the cash to live, don't accept a lowball salary with equity promises. If you can afford the risk, make sure the equity percentage is actually meaningful.
Meaningful means enough that a moderate exit changes your finances. For a CTO hired in the first ten employees, that's probably 1-3%. For a CTO hired at 50 employees, it's more like 0.3-0.8%. Anything less is nice to have but not real compensation.
How to get data you can trust
Recruiters know the market, but they're incentivised to close deals, not maximise your salary. Treat their numbers as a floor, not a ceiling.
Peer networks are better. The trouble is most CTOs don't talk openly about money until they know you well. It takes time to build those relationships, and you need the data before the offer arrives.
Anonymous tools solve this if they're good. The bad ones just republish the same useless survey data with a different interface. The good ones collect real data points and filter them properly.
Check whether the tool asks for company stage, team size, and sector. If it doesn't, it's not giving you a real benchmark. Check whether it shows a range or tries to give you a single number. A single number is always fiction. A range with explanation is honest.
When to walk away from a number
If the offer is more than 15% below market for your specific situation and they won't move, walk. They either don't value the role or they don't have the budget, and both are problems you can't fix.
It won't get any better if you join at a rock-bottom salary; you are just going to end up annoyed and will be looking to move a couple of years down the line.
If they're offering equity in place of fair cash compensation and they're past Series A, walk. They're not serious.
If they refuse to discuss the salary range before the final interview stage, be very careful. Companies that play games with transparency during hiring play games with transparency after you join.
The number is just the start
Salary benchmarking stops you from leaving money on the table, but it doesn't tell you whether the role is right. A below-market offer at a company you believe in might still be the right move. An above-market offer at a company with a toxic exec team is a trap.
Get the data. Know your number. Then make the decision with your eyes open.
If you want a benchmark based on real data points rather than survey ranges, the Salary Benchmark tool might give you a clearer picture of where you stand.
