Why Is Pay for Vanta's Top People Up 10x?

Christina Cacioppo says total pay for the top person at Vanta is probably ten times what that seat paid five years ago, and she thinks it should be higher. Her rule is that you never pay the top people enough. You should always try, and you will not get there. Comp bands are a joke, because the survey data is already wrong. The number that matters is whatever those people are being offered now. What she is paying for is a high-context person who knows the company, the customers, and the domain, makes reasonable decisions, fixes the bad ones, and keeps moving.

The rate is still accelerating. The brake would be investors pushing back on dilution and stock-based pay. The industry had that argument in 2022 and 2023 and is not having it now, so without it people get paid more. The competing pitch she hears is a company said to be worth $6 billion today, a Sequoia check of $10 billion next month, and a write-up to $25 billion the year after. She treats that as a talent-war offer to answer with Vanta's real numbers, not with a bigger promise.