Out of total curiosity: Many AIM seed grants can’t pay for two founders to take 90k a year, or at least, it would be unwise to. How are you thinking about the concern that if AIM pays sensibly for internal staff, that this could draw talent away from founding, which often can’t afford to pay as well? (I worry these aren’t separate talent pools, given the crossover between AIM staff and AIM founders!)
Good question! I think this change will be net positive for founder talent.
Firstly I think that in practice there is less competition for the same talent than one might expect:
(1) The talent pools are actually pretty different. Many of the people who are drawn to our incubation program specifically want to be founders, not staff. Conversely, often when a founder comes to work at AIM it’s because they don’t want to be founding at that time.
(2) AIM can’t actually absorb many founders. We’re increasingly specialized, meaning there are fewer and fewer roles a generalist founder could fill.
A relevant stat: Currently 4 out of 20+ staff are former CEIP founders (and 3 out of 4 are in the Programs Team—where founding experience matters most)
(3) Hopefully the new salary policy will attract more talent to the AIM ecosystem, such that (a) AIM would have less need to hire people who would otherwise found, and (b) more new founders are unlocked than AIM is capable of absorbing.
Out of total curiosity: Many AIM seed grants can’t pay for two founders to take 90k a year, or at least, it would be unwise to. How are you thinking about the concern that if AIM pays sensibly for internal staff, that this could draw talent away from founding, which often can’t afford to pay as well? (I worry these aren’t separate talent pools, given the crossover between AIM staff and AIM founders!)
Good question! I think this change will be net positive for founder talent.
Firstly I think that in practice there is less competition for the same talent than one might expect:
(1) The talent pools are actually pretty different. Many of the people who are drawn to our incubation program specifically want to be founders, not staff. Conversely, often when a founder comes to work at AIM it’s because they don’t want to be founding at that time.
(2) AIM can’t actually absorb many founders. We’re increasingly specialized, meaning there are fewer and fewer roles a generalist founder could fill.
A relevant stat: Currently 4 out of 20+ staff are former CEIP founders (and 3 out of 4 are in the Programs Team—where founding experience matters most)
(3) Hopefully the new salary policy will attract more talent to the AIM ecosystem, such that (a) AIM would have less need to hire people who would otherwise found, and (b) more new founders are unlocked than AIM is capable of absorbing.