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We're looking for investor's money for our startup. We're 3 co-founders, and our roles are the following:

  • One of my partners is a software developer. He's responsible for technical implementation.
  • Another partner is dealing with marketing and sales.
  • I'm responsible for visionary, product architecture, and business development.

As partners, we have the agreement about splitting the profit. Each of us gets a percentage from the profit. However, if we all spend 100% of our time working on the startup, we'll need to get some salary just to pay bills until we begin making money.

The question is if we can ask from an investor for a salary for ourselves (in addition to the salary for the people we need to hire)? Or is it assumed that we as co-founders don't get any salary, but we get a percentage from the profit instead? What's the accepted practice?

Thanks in advance!

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Have a look at this question: answers.onstartups.com/questions/21627/… In short, the answer is, yes, most investors will be willing to let you have a salary, because they want you working full-time on the product. – Cass Sep 18 '11 at 22:39
answers.onstartups.com/questions/2637/… This one's an even better answer. – Cass Sep 18 '11 at 22:54

marked as duplicate by Jesper Mortensen♦ Mar 26 at 11:25

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If you have a great idea and convince someone to give you money to focus on the product they usually want you dedicated to it. That typically means quitting your day job and spending 60+ hours a week on the startup.

Sometimes it may be a stipend that just covers your living costs, and then payment would be adjusted in the future.

But yeah, it's perfectly reasonable to get paid.

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