I recently left my job at a large tech company in Silicon Valley. Instead of finding another job, I want to start a company of my own.
However, thanks to a few expensive things that recently happened in my personal life, I'm not sitting on a massive savings account and only have a couple of months runway.
I've read in multiple places that a CEO should not pay himself, and if he does, he should pay himself next to nothing until the company is comfortably profitable. I cannot live on nothing and my spouse is arguing for me to get another job rather than empty our savings account.
My question:
How big a problem is this, in terms of fundraising? If I got some funding (incubator, angel) and wanted to pay myself the bare minimum to cover my rent and other costs, would this be seen as a naive or un-committed move? If I told potential investors upfront that I needed a small salary, would I be laughed out of the room?
I would obviously focus on a startup idea that could bring in revenue very early on, but as you all know, this isn't as easy as it sounds. I'm also learning about the lean startup approach to really try and get customer validation before I spend time building things.
The other options I can see are: to do some custom or contract work and turn it into a startup (the customer-funding approach), or to bring in income some other way (teaching, consulting) that complements it.
However, thanks to a few expensive things that recently happened in my personal life, I'm not sitting on a massive savings account and only have a couple of months runway.
I've read in multiple places that a CEO should not pay himself, and if he does, he should pay himself next to nothing until the company is comfortably profitable. I cannot live on nothing and my spouse is arguing for me to get another job rather than empty our savings account.
My question:
How big a problem is this, in terms of fundraising? If I got some funding (incubator, angel) and wanted to pay myself the bare minimum to cover my rent and other costs, would this be seen as a naive or un-committed move? If I told potential investors upfront that I needed a small salary, would I be laughed out of the room?
I would obviously focus on a startup idea that could bring in revenue very early on, but as you all know, this isn't as easy as it sounds. I'm also learning about the lean startup approach to really try and get customer validation before I spend time building things.
The other options I can see are: to do some custom or contract work and turn it into a startup (the customer-funding approach), or to bring in income some other way (teaching, consulting) that complements it.
Thoughts? Thanks!