1st time Entrep. raising seed. Have a family. What salary can I expect?

What does market-validated MVP mean? You have paying customers? You are growing a userbase?

As low as possible is a decent , but not truthful answer. WIth kids, I went at $0 for a few years bootstrapped. WIth funding, it matters on your location as well. Suggest $30k - $60k... May investors, if they see a high number at this stage will bail out.

Some links:

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/01/14/salary-founder-favorite-startup-get-probably-high-one/

http://www.quora.com/What-is-a-reasonable-salary-to-pay-yourself-at-a-startup

http://blog.startupcompass.co/what-determines-founder-salary-levels

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/164/Startup-Founder-Compensation-The-Good-The-Bad-and-The-Irrelevant.aspx

OP - yeah we have built a product for businesses. And we have two signups for our test program. It has been successful and has generated revenue for the businesses. Good chance of converting to paying customers.

Salary is something you're going to have to negotiate with investors.

For one thing, I'm assuming any serious offers to invest will include requests for things like year 1 budget. The number you put there for salary will be explored in great detail.

My suggestion is to put what you need to survive bare bones. What you will be able to get is very much a function of the product: if it is something with high perceived value, significant entry barrier to competition, and good traction, then you shouldn't have a problem getting your funding and living wage.

If you're just making an app - it is going to be a lot tougher.

Investors obviously wants whats best for the company. A founder who can't focus on the company because he's worried about paying rent obviously isn't a good thing.

The investors want to make sure you're you're not living comfy off of their dollars either.

At the end of the day its all about where the investment takes the company. If the goal is to get to profitability or to an exit, then paint a viable picture for that, and include salary into the cost plan. The investor is definitely more interested in whether you can hit that than how much salary you're going to draw (as long as its not outrageous) - no point haggling over salary if the investment is going to be worthless due to an unachievable plan.

It's your company so maybe think of it this way... Each dollar you take out decreases your probability of success by some percentage. But you gotta put food on the table. So balance the short and long term.

Be upfront with your spouse and talk through the scenarios / expectations. I honestly think that's the tougher (but more important) discussion!

OP here - thanks everyone great advice. We were thinking of taking out $70k each for both founders ?