Why "The Number Is Never the Problem": Matt McFarlane, Founder of FNDN
Most companies treat compensation as a math problem: get the number right and the rest takes care of itself. Matt McFarlane says that's backwards, and it's the reason so many pay conversations go sideways even when the number itself is fair.
In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Matt McFarlane, founder of FNDN, the compensation consultancy he built after years running People Operations inside fast scaling startups. They get into why counteroffers rarely work, the exact headcount where pay problems start to bite, why equity has stopped doing its job as a retention lever in Australia, and how the AI hiring market has quietly made token costs a bigger line item than payroll.
It's a straight shooting take on pay from someone who builds comp systems for a living, not a general HR overview. They cover the AI engineer bidding wars pushing offers past half a million dollars, why "the raise is too big" is almost always the wrong read on the situation, what Gen Z is actually asking for when they push back on proving themselves for free, and how Matt turned a newsletter into a business that clears half a million dollars a year almost by accident.
About the guest
Matt McFarlane is the Founder and Director of FNDN, a compensation consultancy helping startups and scaling tech companies build pay practices that are clear, fair and competitive. He previously led People Operations functions at companies including Oyster, a global employment platform, where he was Senior Director of People Experience. Matt also publishes the FNDN Series newsletter and podcast, co-founded the Startup People Summit, and was named to the 2026 HR Influence Awards Top 12 for ANZ and LinkedIn's Top Voices Australia.
About the show
Building Tech Teams is hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent, and produced by Day One®, the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI.
Links
Matt McFarlane, FNDN — LinkedIn
FNDN — fndn.com.au
James MacDonald — LinkedIn · NTP Talent
Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent.
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