Question: We're close to securing a commitment from a VC. One of their final due diligence (DD) questions is about the founder salary projection. Is $100K a reasonable level that VCs would expect? We want to ensure our response falls within the appropriate range for seed stage, so any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Answer:
Seed stage – lowest paid employee
Series A or when you find product-market fit (PMF) – lowest paid engineer
When you hit scale – mid-level engineer
When you’ve reached market dominance – market rate pay for CEOs
If growth slows or stops or hard times hit – cut back to previous compensation, until you grow again
Credit: David Zhou