“We’ve all taken very, very small salaries to optimize the runway for the company,” she said. At Syndio, she tried a different approach: Although her leadership was below market salaries, “they weren’t as drastically low as the choices we made when we co-founded SmartSheet,” she said. She added that it was a good idea for founders and start-up executives to simply ask their investors what an appropriate salary might be. (Mrs. Mandelbaum is one of her investors.) She said moments of economic uncertainty can exacerbate inequality.
Ms Lefcourt said she generally preferred founders to use some of their funding to pay themselves a comfortable salary. An amount like $100,000, which falls in the $80,000-$180,000 range she sees as appropriate in most cases, probably wouldn’t “move the needle” on a company’s overall financials, she said. However, that amount could move the needle to a founder’s quality of life.
Mariam Nusrat, the founder of Breshna, a gaming company, said she believed “there is an opportunity cost for every dollar” that comes from investors. At a conference earlier this year, she moved from hotel room every night to save money. She had recently received funding from investors and she thought, “this $100 could go into more Twitter ads or something.”
Reflecting on the role of venture capitalists, Ms Mandelbaum said: “I think we have a responsibility to make sure people are paid fairly. I really.” She added: “I think it’s also our responsibility to make sure that companies, no matter who the founder is, are funded at the same level so that we can actually pay people what they deserve.”
As tech companies get laid off — last month, Cameo, a celebrity app and On Deck, a career services company, were among those laying off at least 20 percent of their workforce — and valuations plummet, it’s possible some founders will. feel pressure to lower their own wages.
“Maybe eating ramen in a small apartment will feel more normalized again,” Ms Lefcourt said, quickly adding, “I don’t recommend it.”
