33 year old CTO here with a fiancee and mortgage (no kids yet, but planning in the next year). When my cofounder and I started, we did it as a side project, nig

33 year old CTO here with a fiancee and mortgage (no kids yet, but planning in the next year). When my cofounder and I started, we did it as a side project, nights and weekends, while making sure we were still working on other things to pay the bills. Once we got it to a point we could raise VC, we did and started taking salaries. We each make less than we were before, but not incredibly lower. We're in healthcare, so our primary income comes from health plans. Personally, I wouldn't have started this if it was a strictly B2C company. Our route to profitability is a lot more clear being B2B in my opinion, which helps both my stress and my partner's stress. She also has a decent job and we've always been relatively frugal, so we could probably get by on just her salary for a bit if things got really bad. My cofounder previously started and failed at another startup, while taking bare minimum salary. It almost ruined his marriage and was terrible for his mental health. We're also just over a year into this, so we'll see if the higher salaries works out or not.