- Houck's Newsletter
- Posts
- How Much Should Founders Pay Themselves?
How Much Should Founders Pay Themselves?
And how much I paid myself at my last startup
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/2021d9b8-c838-4929-a54b-1c09f9c7cdaf/Hey_yall.png)
How much do you pay yourself, as a founder?
It can be a sensitive question, but it has major implications for your startup’s cashflow and your personal stress levels.
I was shocked to find that very little has been written about this online. It seems like a topic where experienced founders and investors could share best practices.
So I put together a quick guide (including some industry benchmarks and what I paid myself when I was running my last startup) 👇
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/c1e2fd93-f505-46f9-b58b-3d823cb5178e/Read_time.png)
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/6af9884f-0347-40ed-a7a3-25e7a4235218/Black_Linebreak_w_Logo.png)
A Guide to Founder (Cash) Compensation
What Info Is Out There Today?
I assumed that most of the well known sources for founder info would have guides about this, but they don’t:
AngelList’s blog has nothing on the topic.
Carta’s annual startup compensation report only mentions the word “founder” twice, both times in the intro.
Even Pave, a compensation benchmarking platform for startups that puts together their own annual report, doesn’t mention founders.
As a result, much of this piece is based on 1:1 conversations and my own experience talking with hundreds of founders over the years.
However, I stumbled onto this extensive report by Kruze Consulting that has a helpful calculator. We’ll dive more into it shortly.
There’s also this newsletter post, but it exclusively discusses founders who’ve been at their startup for over 5 years already.
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect/uploads/publication/logo/b3883e6d-0769-469a-8e5e-29a5d6019999/thumb_Medium_Homepage_Logo.png)
Subscribe to Houck's Newsletter Premium to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Houck's Newsletter Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In
Reply