# Totally Rewarding Chats | Ep. 24: The Story of Levels.fyi and Creating a Great Data Source

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/totally-rewarding-chats-7068820/totally-rewarding-chats-ep-24-the-story-of-levels-fyi-and-creating-a-great-data-source
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/totally-rewarding-chats-7068820/totally-rewarding-chats-ep-24-the-story-of-levels-fyi-and-creating-a-great-data-source.md
Podcast: [Totally Rewarding Chats](https://stenobird.com/podcast/totally-rewarding-chats-7068820)
Published: 2026-03-05T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/DIRED3747910421.mp3?updated=1772663304
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/DIRED3747910421.mp3?updated=1772663304
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Duration seconds: 3228

## Resource

In this episode of Totally Rewarding Chats, Paul and Sean sit down with Zuhayeer Musa, co-founder of Levels.fyi, to discuss the rise of compensation transparency in tech. Zuyaheer shares how Levels.fyi evolved from mapping job levels across companies to becoming a leading salary transparency platform, and explains why better education around equity, benefits, and pay structures is critical for candidates evaluating job offers. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and Background of Zuhayeer 02:54 The Concept of Levels.FYI 05:54 The Evolution of Levels: From Level Mapping to Salary Transparency 08:53 The Role of Self-Reported Data in Compensation 11:40 Understanding Pay Structures and Negotiation Strategies 25:54 Understanding Equity and Vesting Structures 28:51 Market Trends in Equity Compensation 32:31 The Impact of Performance on Compensation 34:53 Competitive Intelligence in Compensation 39:28 The Role of Self-Reported Data in Benefits 44:18 The Evolution of Choice in Compensation Packages 49:02 Transparency in Early Stage Equity

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## Transcript

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