[alephnerd]

What is a "competitive salary" as defined by you?

Most VCs ik are fine with founders paying themselves a market rate base, but I also work with VCs in the Bay Area and Seattle scene - maybe you're from France, Germany, Canada, or some other less founder friendly VC scene?

Also, as a founder your driving goal is to make a company that would succeed. It's up to you to decide your compensation package, but paying the CEO of a 2 person company $300k is just plain dumb.

What has happened to HN? First a post about a guy selling corruption as a service (yes, employees at private companies can be hit by corruption style laws) and now this?

[toddmorey]

Prior founder here: I think this is a fair question and glad it was asked for discussion. They raise a good point about the pool of potential founders being limited by the necessity of a low salary. I think it will always be part of the VC funding model, though.

However, also important to note that VC funding isn't the only way to do a startup.

[alephnerd]

I'd agree if they phrased the question as "What is a reasonable salary I should pay myself to build my company" it would be fine.

By phrasing it as "Pay a FAANG TC (most of which is public stock anyhow) or it's not worth it" is clearly hubris, because it implies that FAANG is somehow superior to other employers (they ain't) and it assumes that founders are somehow superior to mid or senior level leadership at large public companies (they ain't - they're the same people a majority of the time).

> However, also important to note that VC funding isn't the only way to do a startup.

Yep! This! VC is just a way to raise private capital. If you can successfully build on the bootstrap model go for it.