The Wrap Up

The compensation news worth reading

Author

Matt McFarlane
July 13, 2025

Friends,

Welcome to the first edition of The Wrap Up, where I spotlight all the interesting news related to compensation.

It’s hard to go past the first article, a topic that seems to be dominating the news at the moment (at least in my world) — the $100M pay packages allegedly touted by Meta to lure OpenAI researchers.

It’s got pangs of major league sports controversy. At least in a financial sense.

Did you ever think we’d see a world with these kinds of packages (real or imagined)?

I know I didn’t.

We’ve gone from telling kids to become software engineers to telling them to become AI researchers in the swing of a couple of years. Will the pay packets make them household names like LeBron and Ronaldo?

I also couldn’t go past this hilarious post on LinkedIn about the whole saga, modelled on the famous Reddit format for sharing salary progression.

Screenshot of a LinkedIn post that reads: have a buddy who's worth $100mm+ at just 28. here's his salary progression: 22 - $0 (undergrad); 24 - $0 (grad program); 27 - $0 (phd candidate); 28 - $100mm (works at meta and lied about having an offer from openai). follow me for more financial advice.

Enjoy,

Matt

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THE WRAP UP

Welcome to The Wrap Up, your monthly dose of insights on startup people and compensation news, and what it means for you. 

Let’s dive into what moved the needle this past month.

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