The engineer you want to hire just got an offer from Google. Base salary that exceeds your total compensation budget. Stock grants worth more than your company’s last valuation. Benefits that include everything from free meals to on-site massage.
You can’t match it. You shouldn’t try. But you can still hire great engineers—by competing on dimensions where startups have natural advantages.
Understanding What Engineers Actually Want
Compensation matters, but it’s not the only thing that matters. Engineers choose jobs based on multiple factors:
Impact: Will my work matter? Will I see the results of what I build?
Growth: Will I learn new skills? Will I advance my career?
Autonomy: Will I have control over how I work? Will I be trusted?
People: Will I work with people I respect? Will I enjoy the environment?
Technology: Will I work with interesting problems? Will I use modern tools?
Mission: Does the company do something meaningful?
Compensation: Will I be fairly paid?
Big Tech optimizes for compensation. Startups can win on other dimensions—if you’re intentional about it.
Competing on Impact
At Google, an engineer might work on a feature used by billions of people—but their individual contribution is often invisible. One engineer among thousands, shipping incremental improvements.
At a startup, one engineer can build the feature that lands the critical customer. Individual contributions directly affect company trajectory. Engineers see the connection between their work and business outcomes.
Make Impact Visible
- Share customer feedback directly with engineers who built features
- Include engineers in customer conversations
- Celebrate individual contributions in company communications
- Show metrics tied to specific engineering work
Give Meaningful Ownership
- Assign complete features or systems, not small pieces
- Trust engineers to make technical decisions
- Involve engineers in product decisions
- Let engineers talk directly to customers
When interviewing, ask candidates what kind of impact they want. Those seeking visible, meaningful impact will find startups compelling.
Competing on Growth
Big Tech has structured career ladders and formal mentorship programs. But structure can become bureaucracy. Advancement follows defined paths. Learning happens in designated channels.
Startups offer unstructured growth: broader exposure, faster skill development, and career trajectories that don’t fit standard boxes.
Breadth Over Depth
A startup engineer might:
- Design database schemas
- Implement backend services
- Build deployment pipelines
- Debug production incidents
- Interview candidates
- Present to customers
This breadth accelerates skill development. In two years at a startup, an engineer might learn what takes five years in a specialized role.
Leadership Earlier
Startups promote faster because they have to. An engineer who joins a 10-person startup might lead a team of five within two years. At a large company, the same timeline might produce one promotion.
Early leadership experience compounds throughout a career. Engineers who led teams at 28 are positioned differently than those who led teams at 35.
Sell the Growth
In interviews, discuss:
- What skills will they develop?
- What exposure will they get?
- What trajectory is possible?
- What have previous hires achieved?
Engineers who prioritize learning will see startup growth opportunities clearly.
Competing on Autonomy
Big Tech has processes. Processes for code review. Processes for deployment. Processes for getting approval to start a project. Processes for the processes.
Processes serve purposes at scale. But they also constrain. Engineers wait for approval. Decisions route through committees. Innovation requires permission.
Startups offer autonomy by default. Engineers make decisions because there’s no one else to make them. They ship features because the deployment process is “merge and deploy.” They try new approaches because no committee exists to say no.
Trust as Differentiator
- Let engineers choose their tools and approaches
- Avoid requiring permission for routine technical decisions
- Accept that autonomy means accepting some suboptimal choices
- Hire people you trust, then actually trust them
Flexibility as Benefit
Autonomy extends beyond technical decisions:
- Flexible working hours
- Remote work options
- Control over work environment
- Freedom to work on side projects
These flexibilities cost little but matter enormously to engineers who’ve experienced rigid corporate environments.
Competing on People
Big Tech employs excellent engineers. But excellent engineers spread across thousands of people feel different than excellent engineers concentrated in a small team.
In a 20-person startup, everyone knows everyone. You hire carefully because each person significantly affects culture. Teams are tight-knit; collaboration is personal.
Hire Carefully
Your team is your strongest recruiting tool. Great engineers want to work with other great engineers. Every hire affects your ability to make future hires.
Resist pressure to lower the bar. A mediocre hire today makes it harder to recruit strong engineers tomorrow.
Show the Team
During interviews:
- Have candidates meet multiple team members
- Show how the team collaborates
- Demonstrate the culture, don’t just describe it
- Let candidates experience the environment
Engineers often choose the team over the company. Make sure they meet your team.
Competing on Technology
Startups have natural technology advantages: greenfield development, modern stacks, and freedom from legacy constraints.
Modern Stacks
Large companies carry technical debt from decades of development. They run on COBOL, maintain Oracle databases, and deploy to on-premise data centers.
Startups start fresh. You can use Go, Kubernetes, and cloud-native architectures because you don’t have ten years of Java code to maintain.
Interesting Problems
“Interesting” varies by engineer. Some find scale fascinating; big companies have scale. Others find breadth interesting; startups have breadth. Some want cutting-edge technology; both have opportunities.
Understand what the candidate finds interesting. Pitch your technology in those terms.
Technical Culture
Beyond specific technologies, engineers care about technical culture:
- Is technical quality valued?
- Do engineers have input on technical decisions?
- Is there time for technical improvement, or only feature pressure?
- How does the company handle technical debt?
A healthy technical culture attracts engineers even when specific technologies aren’t the latest trend.
Competing on Mission
Some engineers want their work to mean something beyond profit. Climate tech, healthcare, education, accessibility—missions that improve the world.
If your startup has meaningful mission, lead with it. Engineers who care about mission will accept lower compensation to work on problems they believe in.
Be Authentic
Mission appeals only if it’s genuine. Engineers see through performative mission statements. If your startup’s mission is making money, don’t pretend otherwise—some engineers are fine with that.
But if you’re genuinely working on something meaningful, communicate it clearly and let it attract engineers who share your values.
Compensation Strategy
You can’t ignore compensation, but you can approach it strategically.
Pay Fairly
“We can’t match Big Tech” doesn’t mean “we pay poorly.” Research market rates. Pay at least median for your market and stage. Significantly below-market compensation signals either financial distress or disrespect.
Equity Matters
Startup equity is speculative, but it’s real value. Explain equity clearly:
- What percentage of the company do options represent?
- What’s the strike price and current valuation?
- What happens in various exit scenarios?
- What’s the vesting schedule?
Help candidates understand the potential value without overpromising uncertain outcomes.
Other Compensation
Non-salary compensation can fill gaps:
- Conference budgets for learning
- Equipment budgets for productivity
- Flexible time off
- Home office stipends
These benefits cost less than salary but demonstrate investment in engineers.
The Interview as Selling
Every interview interaction affects whether candidates accept offers. Treat recruiting as a two-way evaluation.
Respect Their Time
- Don’t extend interviews unnecessarily
- Be responsive in communication
- Make decisions quickly
- Explain your process upfront
Slow, disorganized processes lose candidates to faster-moving companies.
Sell Throughout
Don’t wait until offer stage to sell. Every interaction should reinforce why working at your startup would be compelling:
- Share excitement about what you’re building
- Demonstrate the culture and team
- Help them see themselves succeeding there
Close Thoughtfully
When making offers:
- Explain total compensation clearly
- Address concerns honestly
- Give reasonable decision time
- Be available for questions
Respect their decision process even if they decline. Today’s decline might be next year’s hire.
Key Takeaways
- Startups can’t compete with Big Tech on compensation but can win on impact, growth, autonomy, people, technology, and mission
- Impact: Individual contributions visibly affect company outcomes
- Growth: Breadth of exposure and accelerated career trajectories
- Autonomy: Freedom to make decisions and control work environment
- People: Tight-knit teams with careful hiring
- Technology: Modern stacks, greenfield development, healthy technical culture
- Mission: Meaningful work for those who prioritize it
- Pay fairly, explain equity clearly, and treat recruiting as mutual evaluation