Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of
Recorded as Talent Lead, Airtree
With Nathan Hill, Adam Witanowski, Claudia Barriga-Larriviere, Matt McFarlane
About Cloë Stanbridge
Cloë Stanbridge is Head of People & Talent at Airtree, where she works with the firm's portfolio companies to find candidates, build hiring processes that scale and develop playbooks for growth. She has worked in talent since 2013, mostly with startups, and has a particular interest in sustainability and health tech companies.
Before Airtree she spent more than four years at The Lab17, working embedded inside scaling companies including Linktree and Immutable. She also led talent at SafetyCulture through a period when its engineering team grew from about 60 to 350 people in two years.
On Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald, she explained why AI is shrinking the junior engineer role and how hiring needs change from pre-seed to growth stage.
- Talks about
- AI, Hiring & Team, Leadership, Startup Lessons
In conversation.
2 episodes
Start hereThe Junior Engineer Isn’t Needed Anymore: Cloë Stanbridge, Talent Lead at AirtreeHer full interview on AI and junior engineering roles, SafetyCulture's hiring growth and Airtree's Frontiers program.
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald 
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald The Junior Engineer Isn’t Needed Anymore: Cloë Stanbridge, Talent Lead at Airtree
Recorded as Talent Lead, Airtree
Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of.
- 0:00Cold open: what should a 10x engineer be paid?
- 0:19Nathan Hill: quantifying what AI is actually worth
- 1:05Million-dollar salaries as a bet on future ROI
- 1:28Adam Witanowski: nine companies, seven offers, real numbers
- 2:35US$500k in the US vs $220k here: which one would you choose?
- 3:50Why the gap is structural: funding, hyperscalers, enterprise mindset
- 5:37Claudia Barriga-Larriviere: more productive, or just faster?
- 6:15"What you don't measure, you can't change"
- 7:26Matt McFarlane: the jump is too big, because you've been underpaying
- 8:32Tokens are eating the people budget
In their own words.
“Everyone can build. Not everyone can sell.”
Airtree Ventures on Day One
Airtree is a venture capital firm that backs startups in Australia and New Zealand, mainly from seed stage.
4 people · 5 episodes
Across the network.
Also at Airtree Ventures
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correctionUpdated 29 October 2026
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