The Ledger is open.
The numbers add themselves.

01 · The formula

Median of three live benchmarks. Recalibrated monthly.

Every role at Palanor pays the rolling 30-day median of three live compensation benchmarks: Pave, Levels.fyi, and Option Impact (Aon Advanced-HR). The median is calculated by role family and level, adjusted by geography, with a Denver-metro floor.

The Ledger ratchets up to meet the market when the market exceeds the current band. It does not ratchet down when the market falls. This is the only direction the Ledger moves.

02 · The current bands

Denver-metro · live as of awaiting first run.

The published number is the band mid. The range exists because individual circumstances (years of experience within level, depth in a specialty, geographic premium) tilt within the band; the mid is the default. Equity is expressed as a percent of fully-diluted authorized shares.

03 · Promotion

Promotion is the only conversation in compensation, and it is structured as a test.

Three reviewers, never the candidate’s direct manager. Published criteria, calibrated quarterly across the company. The panel evaluates a portfolio of deliverables, a written defense memo where the level requires it, and a 90-minute session in which the candidate walks the panel through a hard trade-off they made.

Outcome: promote, hold, or develop with named gaps. The criteria for each level are public to every Palanor employee — there is no hidden checklist.

04 · Equity

Equity is granted, not bought.

Twelve and a half percent of fully-diluted shares are reserved for the Employee Stock Option Pool at incorporation, with intent to expand to eighteen percent by Series A. Standard four-year vesting with a one-year cliff.

Vested options are exercisable for ten years from grant. Departing employees retain the same exercise window — the seven-year clock that punishes people who leave is not part of the Palanor doctrine.

05 · Geography

Pay local market for the role and level — with a Denver-metro floor.

Wherever a Palanor employee lives, the published number is the higher of local market median and Denver-metro median. Remote-international hires receive a published international band. No employee is paid below the Denver floor.