Reimagining Compensation: Charlie Franklin’s Pursuit of Real-Time Transparency
By Rich Scudellari
Imagine making billion-dollar decisions based on data 6-12 months old. To Charlie Franklin, this wasn’t just illogical—it was negligent.
As a career-long compensation expert, Charlie experienced a glaring paradox: compensation was the single most significant expense for most companies, yet these massive investment decisions were being guided by data that traveled so slowly, a carrier pigeon would be an upgrade.
Even as the market evolved, the tools never did. Faster cycles. More competition. Higher stakes. Same old, outdated surveys. Charlie contrasted this with Wall Street, where firms will spend fortunes to gain a few seconds of edge. The disparity was too significant to ignore, and out of his determination to fix it, Compa was born.
Compa has flipped the world of compensation on its head. By providing real-time market data, offers, and analytics, Compa transforms a function once buried in the back office into a strategic pillar of businesses. Compensation teams at companies like NVIDIA, Stripe, Tesla, Workday, AT&T, and others are no longer just crunching the numbers; they’re in the boardroom, shaping key decisions with real-time intelligence.
With the introduction of their AI agents, Compa has expanded beyond data, infusing intelligent agents and automation into the fabric of compensation workflows, helping teams move faster and make smarter decisions at scale. Given the recent announcement, it was the perfect time to sit down with Charlie and discuss his journey in redefining compensation strategies for the world’s most important companies.
What’s your most proud moment as a founder?
Charlie: I am most proud when customers share with us how valuable our software is. It’s one thing to build a great product, another to sign big customers, but positive customer feedback by far is the best. Getting that right fuels all the other proud moments.
What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned in building Compa?
Charlie: Focus. If we succumb to distractions and spread our bets too thin and too far, we will fail. When we play small — focusing on one problem, one use case, one partner, or one industry — we execute better, learn faster, and succeed. That might sound obvious, but the reality of building a company is that dozens of people constantly urge you to do everything but focus. They mean well and often have skin in the game, but focus is the right answer.
What motivated you to start Compa?
Charlie: After 10 years in compensation, I was shocked by the lack of innovation in the space, especially as markets began to move faster and comp teams managing billions in spend still relied on surveys — it was like seeing Wall Street asset fund managers transact using stock prices printed in a newspaper 12 months ago. I knew there was an opportunity to build something completely new and desperately needed.
What keeps you up at night?
Charlie: The number one question I always ask myself is: how can we go faster?
What’s the most important trait you look for when hiring someone for the Compa team?
Charlie: Ownership of outcome. Early-stage startups are characterized by extreme uncertainty, where paradoxically, you lack the necessary information to act, but the only way to learn is to take action. Compa looks for people who: spike on outcome (not clearly defined roles – as there are few to none), are driven by curiosity to learn, and are committed to making things work. These are the individuals who drive the company forward, converting uncertainty into risk through rapid, courageous experiments and a relentless pursuit of value.
What are the top 3 apps used on your phone today?
Charlie: ChatGPT, Duolingo, and Safari — all built by customers. 🙂