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Having done this 5x times now. My advice is the same I got from one of my first VCs @FirstRound... Pay yourself as much as you need to not be distracted by any

• jxm262 5y ago
  never heard this before, but that makes perfect sense. thanks for sharing
• Rd6n6 5y ago
  I would say that setting aside a tiny bit on top of “pay your rent” for savings is necessary. It doesn’t have to be a ton but you shouldn’t be in trouble if the company doesn’t work out. Startups can take years to play out and you need a safety cushion afterwards, some basic level of financial security
• culi 5y ago
  > Pay yourself as much as you need to not be distracted by anything that would slow you down I'd say this goes equally for your employees, no? Pay them enough to take money off the table
  • onebot 5y ago
    In this competitive market, you are likely paying them market plus equity for top talent. EU is less competitive, but you should be paying market or below market if you are augmenting with extra equity.
• andrew_ 5y ago
  I was recently offered a founding role. The cofounder is 14 years younger than I. I have a family of 5, she is single and living on a very light income. Her advisers were telling her founders should pay themselves an amount that was approximately 1/3 of my current take-home. The divide in stage of life and accumulated responsibility was just too great to overcome and we parted ways.
  • mywittyname 5y ago
    This seem so penny wise, pound foolish to me. Assuming the long-term value difference between a great founder and a mediocre one can be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, it really makes sense to spend the extra few hundred thousand on the best cofounder available.
    • hwers 5y ago
      To me it's a sign of a lack of confidence in that long-term evaluation and is probably a sign they don't have the right risk attitude to be in the startup game to begin with.
      • SmellTheGlove 5y ago
        And to me its a sign of not understanding and/or not valuing what an extra decade and a half of experience brings to the table. Paying that cofounder more based on their stage in life is a requisite to acquiring that experience. They're both bearing the same risk, it's just quantified differently for two people in two different life situations.
        • newaccount74 5y ago
          I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer brings to the table is probably not going to be the kind of experience that makes or breaks a startup. Experienced devs can bring much more value at later stage companies, where they can focus on the thing they are good at, rather than at an early stage startup where the founders have a million different responsibilities.
          • SmellTheGlove 5y ago
            > I guess it depends very strongly whether the startup needs that experience or not. Well, this is in response to a post that said they had an offer, so my presumption here is that the startup needed that experience or they wouldn't have offered the role. > And to be honest, the kind of experience that someone who worked 15 years as a developer The original post didn't specify whether they were a developer, only that they were 15 years older than the other co-founder. I'm making my own assumption about that translating into 15 more years experience (not accounting for breaks, back to school, whatever).
• vishnugupta 5y ago
  Multiple angel investors told us something similar. One in fact said they wouldn’t fund us if we pay ourselves way too little because then we would be massively distracted to create anything valuable.
• Nition 5y ago
  The article phrases it as "pay yourself just enough to not think about money."
• myrandomcomment 5y ago
  This! 100%. Last startup when I was promoted to an e-staff level I said "here is what I need not to have to think about anything but making us a success." I have a new startup, and I picked the lowest number that makes me not worry about the bills.