Friends,

I’m taking a little break and enjoying a moment of reflection after one the biggest things I’ve ever done.

If you were at Startup People Summit, thank you.

If you weren’t — I hope you’ll join us next year (it’s 100% coming back).

It was a massive high. And now I’m taking some time to celebrate.

See you next week.

Matt

Aubrey Blanche Serano is the founder of MathPath and former VP at Culture Amp, where she led an industry‑leading effort to build pay equity and earned recognition for achieving one of the smallest gender pay gaps among peer tech firms.

With expertise at the intersection of people, ethics and responsible AI, Aubrey operationalises equity into business systems — transforming abstract values into measurable outcomes. Aubrey’s blunt, data‑driven approach underpinned Culture Amp’s claim: “We fucking won pay transparency.”

Here’s what we covered:

The gender pay gap is a broad, aggregate figure — it shows the average pay difference across genders, not like‑for‑like pay differences. Aubrey emphasises companies typically misunderstand it as reflecting role‑by‑role inequity, when it often originates from structural imbalance in role distribution.

Culture Amp conducted pay‑equity audits twice per year. That cadence matters—auditing only annually or on hire skews results, because organisational change shifts numbers quickly. Aubrey says: “You should never assume you’ve achieved it without checking your work.”

Though counteroffers are tempting for retention, Culture Amp stopped making them outside review cycles — even when competitive. Data showed counteroffers had high attrition risk long term. Prioritising pay equity — even at the cost of losing short‑term candidates — proved more effective for retention and cultural consistency.

Retention and pay equity intersect. At Culture Amp, female engineers were disproportionately leaving, which skewed the pay gap. So leadership invested in L&D dollars specifically to retain high‑performing women. That alone shaved the gender pay gap by half a percentage point — without touching base pay.

Millennials and Gen Z care deeply about values alignment. Aubrey explains that younger hires expect organisations to justify not just the pay level, but the philosophy behind it. Transparency about how compensation is determined helps attract and retain people who value fairness over highest dollar.

Rather than competing in salary auctions, Aubrey pushed for “good enough, fair enough” compensation. Culture Amp positioned itself to attract people who value clarity and equity — reducing churn among those who cared more about fairness than the top offer.

Training recruiters to explain compensation philosophy (like why the offer is X, or how decisions were made) mattered. Many candidates responded positively when compensation was unpacked, not just compared, and this alignment kept Culture Amp competitive even with tighter budgets.

In Australia, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency defines “no pay gap” within ±5%. Aubrey emphasises that getting within that band is exceptional — and that declaring your current status transparently builds trust and momentum toward equity.

Listen, watch or read the full interview here.

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