Team Composition Analysis
Model who to hire, at what salary bands, across pre-seed, seed, and Series A so scope and runway stay realistic.
Overview
Team Composition Analysis is an agent skill most often used in Validate (also Grow lifecycle, Operate iterate) that maps startup roles and salary bands by pre-seed, seed, and Series A stage.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill team-composition-analysisWhat is this skill?
- Stage-based matrices: Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A for Engineering, Sales, Product, and Customer Success
- Salary and OTE bands per role (e.g., engineering lead, AEs, SDRs, PM, designers)
- Explicit pre-seed pattern: founders code and sell with minimal contractors
- Series A depth: VP Eng, layered ICs, DevOps, CS manager, and support engineer
- Role-by-role planning sections for budgeting hiring waves with fundraising stage
- 4 functional areas covered: Engineering, Sales & Marketing, Product, Customer Success
- 3 funding stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Adoption & trust: 6.7k installs on skills.sh; 36.5k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You know what to build but not which roles to hire when—or what those hires cost—so scope and runway planning stay guesswork.
Who is it for?
Bootstrapped or venture-backed SaaS founders drafting first hires after product-market fit signals or a seed round.
Skip if: Solo builders indefinitely avoiding hires, or enterprises with established HR leveling unrelated to startup stages.
When should I use this skill?
Planning startup hiring by funding stage, budgeting salaries, or defining role mix across eng, GTM, product, and CS.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get stage-appropriate team blueprints and compensation anchors to align hiring plans with fundraising and product milestones.
- Stage-specific role roster recommendations
- Salary and commission range references for budgeting
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Team composition is a Validate scope decision—headcount and role mix define what you can ship before you commit to a hiring plan in Grow. Scope subphase covers resourcing assumptions tied to MVP and go-to-market, not just feature lists.
Where it fits
Check if a two-engineer seed team can deliver the scoped MVP before promising dates.
Add first AE and SDR mix after early traction without over-hiring CS.
Rebalance DevOps and support engineer headcount after incident load increases.
Compare typical pre-seed contractor spend versus waiting to hire a lead engineer.
How it compares
Headcount and comp planning template—not a recruiting ATS integration or job-description generator.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is team-composition-analysis for?
Startup founders and lean teams using agents to stress-test hiring plans against pre-seed, seed, and Series A norms.
When should I use team-composition-analysis?
In Validate when scoping MVP staffing; in Grow when planning post-launch sales and CS; in Operate when revisiting eng and support ratios after traction.
Is team-composition-analysis safe to install?
It provides planning guidance only; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page for the parent agents repository.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Team Composition Analysis
# team-composition-analysis — detailed sections ## Role-by-Role Planning ### Engineering Team **Pre-Seed:** - Founders write code - 0-1 contract developers **Seed:** - Engineering Lead (first $150K-$180K) - 2-3 Full-Stack Engineers ($120K-$150K) - 1 Frontend or Backend Specialist ($130K-$160K) **Series A:** - VP Engineering ($180K-$250K + equity) - 2-3 Senior Engineers ($150K-$180K) - 3-5 Mid-Level Engineers ($120K-$150K) - 1-2 Junior Engineers ($90K-$120K) - 1 DevOps/Infrastructure ($140K-$170K) ### Sales & Marketing **Pre-Seed:** - Founders do sales - Contract marketing help **Seed:** - First Sales Hire / Head of Sales ($120K-$150K + commission) - Marketing/Growth Lead ($100K-$140K) - SDR or BDR (if B2B) ($50K-$70K + commission) **Series A:** - VP Sales ($150K-$200K + commission + equity) - 3-5 Account Executives ($80K-$120K + commission) - 2-3 SDRs/BDRs ($50K-$70K + commission) - Marketing Manager ($90K-$130K) - Content/Demand Gen ($70K-$100K) ### Product Team **Pre-Seed:** - Founder as product lead **Seed:** - First Product Manager ($120K-$150K) - Contract designer **Series A:** - Head of Product ($150K-$180K) - 1-2 Product Managers ($120K-$150K) - Product Designer ($100K-$140K) - UX Researcher (optional) ($90K-$130K) ### Customer Success **Pre-Seed:** - Founders handle support **Seed:** - First CS hire (optional) ($60K-$90K) **Series A:** - CS Manager ($100K-$130K) - 2-4 CS Representatives ($60K-$90K) - Support Engineer (technical) ($80K-$120K) ### G&A (General & Administrative) **Pre-Seed:** - Contractors (accounting, legal) **Seed:** - Operations/Office Manager ($70K-$100K) - Contract CFO **Series A:** - CFO or Finance Lead ($150K-$200K) - Recruiter ($80K-$120K) - Office Manager / EA ($60K-$90K) --- name: team-composition-analysis description: Design optimal team structures, hiring plans, compensation strategies, and equity allocation for early-stage startups from pre-seed through Series A. Use this skill when planning headcount, determining which roles to hire next, setting compensation or equity ranges, designing org structure, or building a hiring budget aligned to funding milestones. version: 1.0.0 --- # Team Composition Analysis Design optimal team structures, hiring plans, compensation strategies, and equity allocation for early-stage startups from pre-seed through Series A. ## Overview Build the right team at the right time with appropriate compensation and equity. Plan role-by-role hiring aligned with revenue milestones, budget constraints, and market benchmarks. ## Team Structure by Stage ### Pre-Seed (0-$500K ARR) **Team Size: 2-5 people** **Core Roles:** - Founders (2-3): Product, engineering, business - First engineer (if needed) - Contract roles: Design, marketing **Focus:** Build and validate product-market fit ### Seed ($500K-$2M ARR) **Team Size: 5-15 people** **Key Hires:** - Engineering lead + 2-3 engineers - First sales/business development - Product manager - Marketing/growth lead **Focus:** Scale product and prove repeatable sales ### Series A ($2M-$10M ARR) **Team Size: 15-50 people** **Department Build-Out:** - Engineering (40%): 6-20 people - Sales & Marketing (30%): 5-15 people - Customer Success (10%): 2-5 people - G&A (10%): 2-5 people - Product (10%): 2-5 people **Focus:** Scale revenue and build repeatable processes ## Detailed section: Role-by-Role Planning Originally a 1720-byte section in this SKILL.md. Moved to `references/details.md` to fit Codex's 8 KB skill body cap. ## Compensation Strategy ### Base Salary Benchmarks (US, 2024) **Engineering:** - Junior: $90K-$120K - Mid-Level: $120K-$150K - Senior: $150K-$180K - Staff/Principal: $180K-$220K - Engineering Manager: $160K-$200K - VP Engineering: $180K-$250K **Sales:** - SDR/BDR: $50K-$70K base + $50K-$70K commission - Account Executive: $80K-$120K base + $80K-$120K commission - Sales Manager: $120K-$160K base + $80K-$120K commission - VP Sales: $150K-$200K base + $150K-$