<aside> 💡 As of April 6, 2023 this document has been deprecated and replaced with [Deprecated] Levels Compensation Philosophy - April 2023

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tl;dr

Levels is a venture-backed startup, which leads to an incentive and compensation structure optimized for the long-term interests of our business & members, employees, and investors.

We compensate our team with 90th percentile total compensation packages based on:

  1. Bay Area averages (i.e. we pay you the same amount no matter where you live)
  2. For companies in our peer group (calculated using data from Carta comparing companies of similar market caps; i.e. comparing us to startups of similar size, and not to Apple or Google)

We index the offer on the total compensation package and we allow people to choose how much of their compensation package they want in salary vs equity. Different people will be at different life phases and will have a different risk profile, and we want to be able to offer a compensation package that matches their circumstances and preferences.

We make annual cost of labor adjustments (not cost of living based on changes to market rates for a given position. More on this in the Adjustments section below.

Table of Contents

Background Material

[DEPRECATED] Levels Compensation Philosophy - July 2021

Levels Hiring Philosophy - June 2021

<aside> <img src="/icons/add_gray.svg" alt="/icons/add_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Related documents, added August 2022: ‣

[Job Titles at Levels - June 2022](https://levelshealth.notion.site/Job-Titles-at-Levels-June-2022-b8e1bc086c6b4f1c810750f3dcd5298a)

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Equity Principles

As a venture-backed startup, equity ownership in the company is part of our compensation package. At a high level, we believe:

  1. All full-time employees should be owners in the business and have an equity stake. This promotes a healthy culture that doesn't divide classes of employee. It also encourages long-term thinking and decision making "as an owner, not a renter".

  2. We use equity primarily as a way to attract high talent individuals who believe in our mission and want to help us build the company towards it for the long-term.

    In general, we believe in being generous with equity grants for people who join Levels — especially early on. Early employees take on almost as much risk as Founders, and at many tech companies, they're often wildly under-compensated for it.

We'll also aim to share as much information as possible with candidates who receive an equity offer, including a pro forma worksheet so they can better understand each potential scenario. Here is an example pro forma sheet.

Equity Considerations

For senior leadership hires, the majority of their compensation will be in the form of equity. When deciding how much equity to offer someone, there are a number of factors to consider, including:

  1. How risky is it to join the company at its current stage? (the earlier, the riskier)
  2. How easy is the role to fill / replace? (roles that are easy to fill or replace should be done by contractors or should receive equity compensation proportionally)
  3. Does the person contribute to positive external signaling in some way? (if hiring the person is a positive external signal, such as an industry expert)

For a critical leadership hire â€” especially if the person provides signaling value — we would likely offer them a total 4-year equity compensation package that is bigger than strictly defined in the bands we get back from Carta. Bringing on the right people for certain leadership roles are critical for the long-term success of the company, so it's worth increasing compensation to match.