The front office advantage: Carta is the official sponsor of the Golden State Warriors 2026 NBA Draft

Authors:

Ashley Neville, Nick Dehn

Published date:

June 24, 2026

Learn how to draft your startup's team like an NBA front office with Carta's latest, exclusive analysis: The Total Comp Scouting Report.

The parallel runs deeper than you think

For founders, the stakes are higher than they’ve been in years.

You’re on the clock. By the time you’re in the room with investors, the shot clock has already started. It used to be that competitive founders hired executives after the raise. Now, they’re coming in with the roster already assembled to validate the valuation.

So, founders are building teams in real-time: making offer calls without a comp model and pricing roles in a market AI restructured before most benchmarking guides caught up.

Kirk Lacob, EVP of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors, knows this tension firsthand: “We have a lot of data and a lot of math that can tell you what someone's worth. But that might not actually be reflective of the marketplace.”

Download our report to see what’s separating the champions

The difference between a good hire and a great one rarely announces itself. As Kirk puts it: “It's the margins. Is this player going to fit us two percent better? Is this player worth a three percent better chance of making it? Those are the sort of things where the edges really matter.”

This special edition of the 2026 Carta Total Compensation Report, The Total Comp Scouting Report, is built to give founders and CFOs real offer data from over 900,000 employees in the private markets.

Think of it as your own scouting report in six chapters:

• The First Pick: Why you’re already on the clock
• The Roster: A guide to compensating early exec teams
• The Three-Pointer: How AI is changing the game
• The Trade: How founders exchange equity for talent
• The Starters: Planning comp for your first five hires
• The Contract: How you (like the Warriors) close the six-figure offer

Starting this Draft Day, you’ll have the best data. The rest is up to you.

“The best teams are built with the best data and good decisions. And then sprinkle on a little bit of luck.” — Kirk Lacob, EVP of Basketball Operations, Golden State Warriors

Author: Ashley Neville

Author: Nick Dehn