# Founder-controlled companies with rising CEO pay

Screen for founder-controlled companies, then read each one's leadership and CEO pay history, with screen_companies and get_leadership.

**Tools:** [`screen_companies`](/developers/reference/screen_companies), then [`get_leadership`](/developers/reference/get_leadership) per company · **Calls:** 1 plus one per company

## Ask an assistant

> Using Fundalyze, find founder-controlled US companies, then for the ten largest by revenue show the founder, how much of the vote they control, and the CEO's total pay for each of the last five years. Flag the ones where CEO pay rose every year, and mark any figure the data says may be inaccurate.

## How the calls go

1. **Screen.** `screen_companies` takes a list of `filters`, each written as `metric:min:max` (leave `min` or `max` empty for an open end, for example `founder_controlled:1:` or `ceo_total_pay::50000000`), and returns only the companies that match. The metrics it accepts are public-record figures only, among them founder and control flags and CEO pay; the [data dictionary](/developers/dictionary#screen-metrics) lists their ids and units. Sort by revenue (`sort_by`) and keep the first few (`limit`).
2. **Read each company's leadership.** `get_leadership` with the ticker and `years` set to 5 returns the founders, their roles, whether the company is founder-led or founder-controlled, voting and economic stakes where known, the current CEO, and CEO pay by fiscal year from the proxy statement's summary compensation table.
3. **Compare** the pay series: the answer already holds the yearly totals, so "rising every year" needs no further calls.

Every parameter and field is on the [screen_companies](/developers/reference/screen_companies) and [get_leadership](/developers/reference/get_leadership) reference pages.

## Read it carefully

- **Some founder records are uncertain.** Control and stakes come from filings and our own research; a low-confidence record says so in `text` ("may be inaccurate") and in `data` (`confidence`). Keep that marker when you pass the result on.
- **Reported pay is not take-home pay.** The summary compensation table values stock awards when granted; "compensation actually paid" (also in the answer) adjusts for what those awards became worth.
- **Fiscal years differ** between companies, as in the [margins recipe](/developers/recipes/compare-margins).