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There's an interesting blip at the end of the chart "Bootstrapped vs. VC-Backed Salaries Breakdown". Salary Range Bootstrapped VC-Backed -------
by tobyjsullivan 4y ago
There's an interesting blip at the end of the chart "Bootstrapped vs. VC-Backed Salaries Breakdown".
Salary Range Bootstrapped VC-Backed
-------------- ----------- --------------
200k-249k 3% 6%
250k-299k 1% 3%
300k+ 6% 2%
Overall, I see a pattern that could be explained by slightly different perspectives. A VC-backed founder likely sees themselves working for someone else - "My work will benefit the investors, so I will get paid for that work." Whereas the bootstrapper is very obviously working for themself - "I'll take what I've earned or need and no more".
That's also where you get into that bump at the end. If my bootstrapped company is earning 10M/yr, you bet I'm taking 1M+ salary guilt-free.
edit: accidentally swapped the headers on first post
- paxys 4y agoSimpler explanation – salaries of VC-backed founders have to be approved by the board, which consists of these same VCs. Bootstrapped founders can pay themselves whatever they want.
- Swizec 4y ago> If my bootstrapped company is earning 10M/yr, you bet I'm taking 1M+ salary guilt-free. Wouldn’t you prefer to take minimum salary and the rest as dividends? Seems like that would be the more tax advantaged approach and fully within your ability to do as majority owner.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoOnce your company is earning $10M/year, you should probably be using debt instruments instead, and paying yourself enough salary to cover the interest. That gives you a real tax rate on your cash earnings under 10% (and capped at the LTCG rate) if you can get a decent valuation.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> gives you a real tax rate on your cash earnings under 10% And turns your start-up failing (or firing you) into a financial end game.
- rexreed 4y agoCan you provide some more detail or where to read on this debt instrument strategy?
- Swizec 4y agoYou can use anything as collateral for a loan, even business equity. It’s how wealthy people get liquidity without selling assets. A HELOC loan would be a pedestrian example of this. You put house equity up as collateral to get money without selling the house. Fail to pay, bank sells house. When using your business as collateral, bank sells business.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoAlso, HELOCs have very high interest rates due to the illiquidity of the underlying asset. If you have a large private company that has some interest from private equity investors, you can get a much lower rate. ELOCs on huge blocks of the S&P 500 (essentially large margin loans) can have rates that are almost at the fed funds rate.
- rexreed 4y agoI would imagine with the very high failure rate of startups, loans based on company equity, especially for small, non-public non-liquid companies must have sky-high rates.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoYou probably can't get an ELOC against common stock in a series A startup. You can definitely get an ELOC at a pretty decent rate against preferred stock in a startup that is at series D and has 100 employees. The question isn't what the company is worth or how likely it is to fail, the question is what demand there is for the shares. If an asset is in high demand, and is relatively easy to sell (like company shares), you can get an ELOC against it at a great rate. They won't give you 100% of the valuation of the company in the form of an ELOC (you may only be able to pull out 10-20c/$1 of startup equity you have), but they will give you a good rate.
- tobyjsullivan 4y agoGood point. I guess I assumed it wasn't incorporated which would be silly (though probably not uncommon for solo founder)
- catsarebetter 4y agoYeah, in Company of One they say Peldi from Balsamiq takes 1 mil per year