Friends,

I don’t know about you but I get really self conscious when it comes to speaking about how I’m using AI. Even though I use it daily, I always feel like I’m behind the 8-ball, especially when I’m constantly bombarded with content about how its changing lives and building billion dollar businesses.

But I need to stop that. Because every time I do share how I’m using it (in some limited discussion), people are genuinely excited to hear about it. And by discussing it, we grow how it can help others.

So, in my first example of ‘Matt plays with AI’, I tackled an important challenge I often see in startups: how can we better tell the story of equity in our company?

I built an equity value simulator that helps people visualise the current and prospective value of their grant. You can check it out here and let me know what you think.

I regularly work with teams on how to communicate equity more clearly, so this felt like a quick, practical solution. It took maybe 1–2 hours of prompting in Lovable to create it. Suffice to say, I will be doing a whole lot more of this.

I’m also now convinced that, with how easy it is to prototype now, People teams should be building more and more internal tools to meet their needs.

I’ll make a deal with you. If you’re using AI a lot internally, I’d love to hear about what you’re trying and how it’s going. In exchange, I’ll speak more about how I’m using AI.

Deal? Great.

Enjoy this weeks edition ✌️

Matt

I still remember when I read my first great compensation philosophy, and wondered how I could ever write something that brought structure and clarity to such a difficult topic.

Since then, I’ve had a hand in writing over 30+ compensation philosophies, and read plenty more.

This deep guide is built with the best of those philosophies in mind, and in a way that enables you to easily build your company’s needs into your very own compensation philosophy.

You’ll be armed with everything you need (including a ready-to-use philosophy template) to go from blank page, to exec buy-in, to building trust with your people.

Interested in sponsoring the FNDN Series?

Know a startup Head of People looking for answers 🙋 why not forward this to them for some instant karma? ✨

Andrew Bartlow built his HR craft over 25 years, from foundational roles at Pepsi and GE to leading CHRO functions through IPOs, M&A, and PE-backed scaleups. He helped transform Waypoint Homes into a $20B public company and has supported over a dozen C-suites navigating high-stakes growth. Today, through Series B Consulting and People Leader Accelerator, he advises HR leaders at scaling startups on how to align people practices with strategic goals.

In this episode, Andrew explains why “doing more with less” is not about cutting corners, but about driving performance through deliberate differentiation, distribution, and communication. His frameworks challenge conventional thinking — showing how comp strategy, when tightly linked to business outcomes, becomes a lever for productivity, clarity, and cultural health.

You must make rewards meaningfully different across levels of performance. Andrew urges HR leaders to resist flattening everything to “everyone gets something nice.” Instead, top performers should get substantially more than middling performers, and bottom performers should feel the lack of reward. Even zero in some cases. This stark curve creates incentive, signals what matters, and pushes the middle to stretch. Without this, performance drifts downward: everyone starts selling it safe.

When you allow some people to get very high rewards and others very low (or none), your comp budget becomes more powerful. It lets you channel scarce resources toward those who move the needle. Andrew recalls GE’s historic 20/70/10 split (top/middle/bottom) as not dogma, but a useful anchoring device: without it, you lose the ability to clearly signal who’s excelling.

It isn’t enough to set up differentiated pay. People must understand why they got what they got, what they might get if they do more, and how the comp philosophy aligns with business goals. Pre‑briefs (what’s the terrain), debriefs (how things landed), billboard successes: these aren’t fluff; they are trust‑building, motivation engines. If a manager cannot explain a raise, then the system is opaque and, in effect, failing.

Tight budgets aren’t just constraints; they sharpen choices. Andrew challenges leaders to stop treating compensation budget as something to match past norms or benchmarking reports. Instead, frame budget asks in terms of what the organisation is trying to achieve (product velocity, sales growth, hiring key senior talent). When your comp decisions are aligned with those goals, you’re far more likely to get buy‑in and higher leverage returns.

If you enjoyed this post or know someone who may find it useful, please share it with them and encourage them to subscribe.

When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help you:

1. Tools & resources
Resources and tools that give you what you need to build your own startup compensation practices.

2. Comp consulting
I run FNDN, a global comp consultancy that builds compensation practices that are clear, fair and competitive for startups.

3. Startup People Summit
I run the Startup People Summit, a one day annual event focused on creating the playbook for startup people practices. Grab recordings from past events, or subscribe to the newsletter to join the next event.