Photo credit: Amagill/Flickr
Despite a continued sluggish economy, venture capitalists and those who are funded by them are still by and large seeing healthy six-figure salaries. Venture-backed CEOs in particular are bullish on expected increases in bonuses over the past couple years to pad their personal bottom lines.
According to Salary.com, the average venture capitalist employee with one to five years of experience managing assets of up to $2 million can expect to see an average salary of $162,814. A more experienced employee managing up to $10 million with five to 10 years on the job can expect to make $239,660, while a still more experienced employee managing up to $25 million with 15 years experience can make $274,418. While these numbers are still a far cry from what top managers make, they are still nonetheless comfortable salaries in just about any locale.
Top executives at venture-backed corporations are faring even better according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Although base salary has remained fairly stable for these executives over the past three years, a steady increase in bonus size has pushed their average overall compensation past the $350,000 level. The results were culled from a broader survey of companies that were both venture-backed and non-venture-backed. More than half of the companies surveyed made less than $10 million in revenue.
In a poll of 56 CEOs from venture-backed companies conducted by ExpertCEO, average compensation among the group in 2010 was $330,145, comprising of an average salary of $246,742 and a bonus of $83,403. While the group expects only a slight salary increase in 2011, they expect their bonus to increase to an average of $106,337. This would give them a total average compensation of $354,287 in 2011.
These numbers, published in March 2011, are amended slightly from an earlier October 2010 Wall Street Journal report on ExpertCEO’s survey. In that report 76 CEOs reported an average salary in 2009 of $238,000 with a $94,000 average bonus. The average target bonus for 2011 expected at the time was $130,000.
While both salary projections and the bonus target has been dialed back a bit in the months since October 2010 (venture-backed CEOs then expected an average 2011 salary of $262,000), the expected increase in average bonuses over 2009 and 2010 remains consistent.
In addition, more venture-backed CEOs now expect bonuses at the end of the year. As of October 2010 65 percent of the surveyed CEOs expected bonuses, while in as of March 2011 77 percent expected one for 2011. According to the March 2011 survey 58 percent of respondents expected a bonus in 2010. Particularly striking are bonus expectations for CEOs of small companies with less than $1 million in revenue. Approximately 70 percent received no bonus at all in 2010, but the same number expect one in 2011.
