What do you pay yourself as a founder?

<p>I raised a half-million in funding. I guess "lightly funded" is relative.</p>

that's close to 20% of what you've raised

+1

20% of your funding for yourself as salary is way too much. You should be taking around 50K

Congrats on raising that and having zero revenue. I'm in the same boat and wish I could raise that much. It's exactly what I need. Banging my head trying to figure out where the hell to go for the money.

Getting some customers might be a good start.

$1,200 a year is not $200 a month. That's $100 a month. I don't know how anyone can live on that salary in America; maybe some third world country but not here. Even if 12 such people shacked up together they couldn't afford rent.

You are right, what a stupid mistake, it's $2,400 a year. We had savings and we all have wealthy families that helped us a little, yet we were living in very precarious conditions.

<p>If you raise funding, you should pay yourself. CEOs should not be thinking about if they can afford dry cleaning this week, or whether they can afford to eat out and should have to cook their own food. The value in avoiding circumstances like that is the value in paying yourself. Anyone who says a founder should be earning 20k is probably in high school.</p>

20K can go a long way. I don't know what kind of rich area you live in but in most of America, people can easily live on 20K if they have no children and have roomates.

You can get a room for around $500-$800 a month. If you had $800 a month for food and other expenses like gas and car insurance, that's $15,600-$19,200 a year, which is under the $20K figure that I used.

You don't think that one twenty-something year old guy or woman can live on that then you're a spoiled brat and only care about having a high salary because you don't believe in the prospects of your company.

Nobody said that $20K had to be a long term thing anyways; just the first year or two when you're bootstrapping the company, and/or when you have raised a small amount of capital but generate no revenues like the OP.

You do realize most consumer startups don't generate revenues until much later, right? Would you have told twitters founders or mark zuckerberg that they can only have a 20k salary after they raised seed or series A?

Again, you seem to think 80k salary is a lot - it's not. The point of paying the CEO is so that they can think about company problems, not about mundane real life problems like if they can afford rent this month or if they have enough money to go out to dinner. I don't think any investor would give a shit if any of their CEOs paid themselves from 75k-125k, anything more without having reached milestones towards a series B+, and you might argue the salary is high, but lol at thinking anyone even a 21 year old kid should be only giving themselves a 20k salary after they've raised.

You're making the assumption that his company is the next Twitter or Facebook. I highly doubt that he has that kind of user growth.

another poster here: it also seems like they haven't raised that much - 75k-125k would seem fine for a series A but his is barely a seed

<p>OP here. Completely agree. Founders shouldn't worry about maintaining life outside of work. I also believe that they shouldn't take more than they need to live comfortably.</p>

<p>While my company isn't a consumer play, it does have a long sales cycle, so revenue isn't immediate. I was able to raise money early because of previous relationships with investors.</p>

Good point. I'd think between 85- 125 k is the rate to go. Here's a great article about Buffer. It pays its CEO 158k plus a bonus structure.

http://qz.com/160348/why-a-startup-just-published-all-of-its-employees-salaries-for-the-world-to-see/

This. Founders need to be focused, not worried about whether they can make rent and needing to find outside gigs.

With that logic, we should put 20-somethings in charge of running fortune 500 companies. "They can live on ramen noodles and sleep on couches... they don’t need a salary as high as [millions]; they can get by on $20,000 or even less..." It would save stockholders millions of dollars and they would gladly do it for the experience, cause they are "thirsty"

You're missing the point. Fortune 500 companies generate lots of revenue, hence they can afford to pay high salaries. The OP's company doesn't generate any money whatsoever and yet he pays himself like it's making millions.

you are an idiot, do you know anything about venture capital?

Now, now... this forum is excellent for its impressive (and welcome) lack of name-calling and insulting. Let's keep it that way.

Single founder, 150k run rate, bootstrapped.

Taking about 30k salary. The rest goes to employees, opex, etc.

You're smart. You know what's more important is the long term success of your company; not getting paid a high salary.

Here's another angle- I'm a 40-something founder and I don't take a salary (even though my company makes revenue) because I have assets and I want to reinvest the max back into the business. It's not about age; it's about being practical and future-oriented; there's something to be said for maturity.

I think you are right to pay yourself. Housing in Silicon Valley (if that is where you are) is high. REALLY high. Giving yourself poverty wages is silly. The young 20 somethings, have the advantage of living in their parent's house or crashing with a ton of other people, which can be a horrid experience.

++++

and not to mention, office rent will end up eating a large chunk of it, especially if you're in a high COL area.

what is your burn rate? plus, it usually takes six months to raise another round... but then it's hard to raise another round if you don't have traction.

Been at it for years and nothing to show for it yet? You sure you're in the right game?