The clever engineer. The prototype hacked together in the garage. The savvy exec who believes in the idea enough to leave a cushy job, take a major pay cut, and join a risky new venture. These are the familiar parts of the start-up myth - Silicon Valley's version of the American Dream.
And more and more entrepre-neurs are following it. In fact, honchos qualified to run the flood of start-ups are in such demand that unemployment is negative in the Valley. One headhunter estimates there are 150 searches for start-up CEOs and only about 80 good candidates. The result: executive pay is skyrocketing. The average annual salary for a vice president is US$150,000, up 20 percent from 1995.
"It used to be hard for high tech start-ups to raise capital," notes Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. "These days, monetary capital is easy to come by - finding the intellectual capital is the hard part."
As for the start-up myth, just drop the "major pay cut."
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