Ask HN: How much should founders be earmarking for their salaries?
I've been working on my pitch deck and PnL and a lot of feedback (pre-sharing it with angels and VC's) is that I've set the salary for myself and the other founders too high. It's currently at ~$150k, including base + benefits (medical and dental). I've been browbeaten for having it so high, and told it shouldn't be higher than $90k, as an absolute maximum.<p>To put some context into this, this startup is made up of founders in their early 30's, with families, and financial obligations. In addition, while none of us have executed a startup, we all have pedigree in our careers (Microsoft, U.S. military, major global financial firms, and Wall Street bulge bracket banks). Additionally, the product that we're developing is not a commodotized concept, meaning we're not developing another social media site, it's hard science that solves a big problem, with a market size in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Last but not least, we have some initial traction from well known players in the industry.<p>Putting all these factors together, and considering our geographic region (New England, expensive area, not the rural area), are we setting the salaries too high? Should they really be towards the $90k range? Or lower? Or where? Would really appreciate some feedback on this from people with actual experience in getting funded.
0 comments
—