If a founder is in it for money alone - Trust me, it is unlikely to end well.

Everyone can read it like an open book - World is full of smart people.

Dude, EVERYONE is in it for the money. No one is trying to hide it, in fact, they're talking about this precisely because they want to come to an arrangement that's beneficial for all parties. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want.

Backend Engineer

Doesn't mean they have to live poor. A decade ago that would have been the case.  
 They can take 50k to 1l till series a I guess

Founder’s Office

1lpm =/ random shopping+vacations

Founders of VC-backed startups are sorted to live sustainably, think ~1lpm and up right from Seed-stage. Cash comp goes up by round, most of the time

Is the comp for Series A and B much higher? I’ve heard higher numbers

UX/UI Designer

Yes, Series A onwards founders make bank in cash comp

Chief of Staff

Tell me how significant, payscale and wealth generation for founders usually is are they able to live a good sustainable life(0.751 LPM spends) after Seed/Pre series A. Monetary incentives are defi...

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Tell me how significant, payscale and wealth generation for founders usually is- are they able to live a good sustainable life(0.75-1 LPM spends) after Seed/Pre series A. Monetary incentives are definitely a factor and how well does it pan out for early founders? Are they able to spend time shopping or going on vacations randomly?

Early stage founder's opportunity cost

Founder

Early stage founder's opportunity cost- Grapevine

About the series - Asking questions that you generally don't find answers easily or think they are too basic to be asked
Idea originated here - https://share.gvine.app/utBVxDbxRZxLFgzS9

Expanding the question - Most founders have worked high profile roles before going full time in building something of their own. The uncertainty in finances, in most cases reduction from the lifestyle their salary allowed them to maintain, how do they navigate that?

[Startup Series] Q1. To founders, how do you manage with deflated lifestyles?

Consultant

Data on founder Salaries in India 

https://inc42.com/features/founder-salaries-tracker-fy23-amid-the-funding-winter-how-much-did-startup-founders-earn/

List of Founder Salaries in India

Growth Manager

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Looking for insights on stocks+cash package for a co founder role (handling all things non tech). The company has raised 1mil pre series.

What is the salary of a Co-founder for pre series start up

Co-Founder

Question : 
Are founders allowed to draw salary from Seed funding?

Founder Salary

Project Manager

With the host of startups closing down, was curious to know what does founder net worth usually result in and how do they generally make money for them along the way. Few questions-

1. Do founder sell percentage of own shares in Series A and B raises? I would assume there would be some checks on this but want to know what's the practical reality of this and if this happens what's the amount a founder can make through this 


2. If the startup is clear it has to shut down, what typically happens? Acquisitions? Insolvency?


3. Assume a Series B  level startup with valuation around 150 cr with say 10 Cr annual revenue and 40 cr losses and 30% founder stake and it's clear it has to shut down. In the absence of any acquisition, what money comes to the founder

Founder wealth gains in failed startups

well placed to answer this.
We recently shut down.
we had raised about 4.8 mn USD and were operational for 3 years.
When we decided to shut down we had about 500k in the bank.
The primary reason was so that we could clear all our dues and liabilities well.
We paid 2.5-3 months of severance, laptops to our team.
Then we had to clear a lot of statutory payments, which were usually taken care of from the monthly cash flows.
Then we hired a high charging consulting firm to ensure proper due diligence of closure process so that there are no surprises later, whether it was around taxation, vendor payments or any contracts.
Then we hired a law firm for the closure process.
After all this, the company was left with about 150k USD on the books.
This money was paid out to us two founders as severance payout.
In the 3 years of operations the founders in general averaged at less than 25% of their market salary, which meant depletion of personal resources completely.
The severance amount received by each of us was as good as 60-80% of our market salary.
Net net, financially, less money earned from salary + severance than would have earned in 3 years of my market salary job.
Hope this helps :)

Management Consulting

How much does a core team member gets in equity in an early stage startup?

Product Manager

VC with 5+ yrs of exp - AMA

Community Manager

𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱.

Investor

I’m considering joining as a founding engineer at an early stage startup who is just about to sign a $4M seed round.

They offered to match my current base and a $20,000 in ESOPs. 

When joining at such early stage companies, how should I think of ESOPs so that I can better negotiate. I’m banking on this idea going big and I want to get as much ESOPs as possible to maximise my returns in the future.

ESOPs in early stage startups

Software Engineer

I have 6 years experience. My current base/fixed is 60 LPA. (I also got a 5 lakh bonus and 5 lakh of my ESOPs vested this year making my total vested about 30 lakh. So the total comp is 70). 

I'm being offered a senior engineer position in an early stage startup (as part of the founding engineer team). They haven't given an offer yet.

Being early stage, the emphasis will most likely be on ESOPs. How do I evaluate this and set my expectations? (If I were to switch to a mature company, I believe the hikes usually are between 15-20%? How does this work for early stage startups?)

Salary expectation at early stage startup

I recently worked at a startup and it was terrible. 

To be honest, I still worked at one of the better ones but it just sucked. 

Some of the clear downsides I see 

- Survival mode leads to chaos. You can be treated anyway and asked to leave whenever  even though you left big opportunities to be here 
- Brand loss to find next job (Big problem)
- Trying to make you feel unworthy(Doesn't bother me but I have seen people lose self confidence)
- Loss of opportunity to build real skills like building sustainable teams for the long run

I think over all working at a startup especially early teams is a losing proposition. Do it only if -
 - you know the founders/team well 
- you know the industry and market well and it is a bet you personally believe in
- you are secure enough in life that if you go back to your job, you will easily get employed 


For middle class kids, startups are the worst bets one can take.

Working at startups is terrible

Product Designer

Anupam Mittal was shocked to know that the founders of Nasher Miles take 5-7 lakhs per month per founder

Is that alot? What has been y'all experience?

Is 5-7L per month in hand alot?

Principal Software Engineer

Fast learning and fast paced growth aside, after 15 years of MNC experience  I joined a startup to get some ESOPs.. and hopefully a good buyback ..

I have worked in 2 startups now.Both of these were already  Unicorns when I joined .


While I love the culture and dynamic pace of a startup 
i feel my chances of getting a payout  are slim...

My personal learning is to get a good reward you have to be in top 10 employees for sure ... otherwise it's not worth it ..

There is no point joining a Unicorn in middle management...or second in command in any function...

Happy to hear your thoughts !

Share your ESOP buyback story..

What is the ballpark compensation range for the role of the founder's/ceo's office in seed and series afunded startup?

Founders office role compensation

I am an ex founder, recently left my company. I don’t seem to have the courage to start again and don’t feel like have any skills . I’ve been consulting some startups on fundraise, should I try building an investment banking company ?

I don’t know if that is what I want to do.

Ex founder looking for career advice

To fellow VC friends, 

Have been seeing people putting in their bio as successful Exit.

How much returns do they get when an acquisition happens?

What are the odds of making money.? I know a few who didn't even make any money.

Early stage founder's opportunity cost

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