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"The lower the CEO salary, the more likely [a startup] is to succeed." - Peter Thiel http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/08/peter-thiel-best-predictor-of-startup-suc

• staunch 17y ago
  Low != non-existent. He certainly is not saying that money raised should not be for salaries. 'What’s the average salary for CEOs from funded startups? Thiel was hesitant to answer, but eventually said “$100-125k.”'
• tptacek 17y ago
  Probably because low salaries are a proxy for commitment, not because of direct cause-and-effect.
  • notauser 17y ago
    The investors I know want to match their risk profile with the risk profile of the founders. That means that if they are risking 1% of their net wealth, they would like the founders to also risk ~1% of their net wealth - even if that means $4m or $40. This is because they don't want founders to have incentives that don't align with theirs. You are right that no one wants a founder who is under-invested as they may end up not pushing hard enough. But a founder who is over-invested might cause even more problems because if a 2x return means they get to keep their house they might not go all out for a 50x return if it puts that 2x return at risk.