Fit Determines Pay: Why Hard Caps Cost You Top Talent

I told him that's the wrong question.

Comp depends on scope, fit, and what you’re actually asking this person to own.

Needs to be coherance.

So I suggested something simple:

“Leave it open.”

A hard cap might protect your budget in the short term.

But it does an even better job of filtering out the exact people you wish you could hire - the ones capable of doing everything you just described.

Find the right person first.

Then shape the comp around their weight class.

When comp and scope don’t match, churn is just a countdown.

Fit determines pay, not the other way around.