There's a broad spectrum of opinions on this. Personally, I think that founders should draw enough of a salary to live on in the early days - that's going to d

There's a broad spectrum of opinions on this. Personally, I think that founders should draw enough of a salary to live on in the early days - that's going to differ from person to person, but I don't think it's reasonable to ask a startup founder to completely destroy their personal financial situation to extend runway an extra few months. Once you get past Series A, I think you should be getting paid a fair salary based on your role and level of experience. You can work that out with the board. As far as paying out equity holders, typically excess cash gets reinvested in the business, since many (most?) startups are optimized for growth rather than profitability. It is not uncommon, however, to have an executive bonus plan for achieving various revenue or other milestone objectives as the company grows.