[shaggy]

Somewhere along the line, this concept of a founder/CEO taking a tiny salary got worked into the way start-ups work. Should a founder be paying themselves a huge salary and living it up based on that? No. Should they be able to pay themselves a livable wage that doesn't mean they are spending their nest egg or making drastic cuts in how they live? Yes.

This article is lacking in one key area, which makes the argument valid or not. How much money these startups are making. With out that data, this is just another self fulfilling prophecy that the VCs and their followers can point to and say, see?

I'd be lumped into the older founder class and having a family to support I could not take a giant pay cut if I started a business. I save and manage my money carefully but I would pay myself the same salary I make now so that I could at least have the same level of money comfort I have now. Doing anything differently is simply stupid and a VC that is angry about it isn't someone you should do business with. It's a way they keep their power when at the end of the day the people with the idea that makes all the money should have the power. You want 10 or 20% of my company? Great, I'm going to pay myself what I'm worth. The minute people stop letting themselves be bullied by VCs is exactly when this kind of stupidity stops happening.