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Founder’s Office Compensation expectation?

Hey folks! Been figuring out my next steps and thought I’d share a bit of my journey so far. Spent the last 3 years doing internships, mostly in early-stage startups. Had two founder’s office job offers from SaaS startups—₹12LPA (₹8L cash + ₹4L ESOPs)—but turned them down to build my own thing. Started a D2C personal care brand, bootstrapped to ₹1.5L MRR, made it to the top 1% at WTFund. Ultimately had to shut it down due to scaling challenges, but learned a ton along the way. Now exploring roles again—currently in talks with an e-commerce brand launching in the US, looking for someone to handle 0→1 execution in the founder’s office. Curious to hear from folks in similar roles: what would be a reasonable salary expectation here?

In-house brand teams vs Agencies

Designers, what have your experiences been like working in in-house brand/marketing teams vs agencies? If you’ve worked in both - Which do you prefer? Why? For designers who have worked in in-house brand/marketing teams: What has it been like for you? Is there scope for creativity in the companies you’ve worked in? For designers who have worked in agencies: How has your experience been? Would you stick to agency side or switch?

A view on Layoffs

Having recently been laid off, these last 2 months was a life changing experience and it taught me a lot of things than any degree or organisation ever did. Some pointers: 1. The people who make the decisions never get punished or are held responsible, its the folks like us who are the first to be pushed out of the door. 2. Its shocking to see the layoffs like firesale, affecting almost each and every company in the IT sector. But it makes you think, did some companies really need to layoff people or did they just do it to inflate their share price and Mcap. The upper management and LT are paid in crores to make the decisions and how could they unanimously fail in such a critical part of business planning. 3. Its all about profits. There's no humanity in any of these companies or rather the folks making the decisions and it doesn't matter if you have been with them for 2 years or 20. If I was responsible for 100 people under me and some of them lost jobs because of the decision I made, I would have stepped down myself and wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I uprooted the dreams and hopes of not just employees but their families as well, many of whom are sole bread earners of the family. 4. Treat your employer just as you would treat any brand outside when you go out to shop - treat it like a transaction and nothing else. This layoff also taught me to never compromise about your career and position within an organisation. If the organisation can layoff so many people without a second thought, there's nothing holding you back from joining the next organisation who is offering a better role/compensation. 5. Be a risk taker. Thankfully I have always been this and this helped me rise quickly in my 6 year career but it's my suggestion to everyone and not just folks affected by layoffs - Never get comfortable in any organisation or any role. Would love to hear what others think or went through during this difficult period.