If we're going to have this discussion and focus on the management team, then I think we need to say how much money the company has raised. My thinking about salary for myself and co-founder is definitely funding specific.
Why? If I got 50 million dollars in funding or 400k, I'd still probably pay myself only what I need to survive/present myself and pour as much into the business as possible, at least until profitability and even then my salary would remain low until profitability was maintained and began to increase rather than be an issue.
Exactly. There's a time element to this. It takes 7-11 years for a startup to go public. Your life changes during that time and so does the relative impact of your salary on runway.
7-11 years for a startup to go public, but how long to reach profitability to the point where an increase in salary won't affect that profitability? If it takes 7-11 years for that, you're probably not in the right business.
It's not about the amount you raise, it's about what stage your company is in. That's my real point there.
