Article · 12 min read

Founder Salaries Tracker FY25: How Much Did Startup Founders Earn?

Inc42 Data Labs · Inc42 Freemium Intermediate India

Salary transparency made real in the Indian ecosystem: named founder comp across 65 founders at 37 companies. It shows the range of philosophies you are actually choosing between, from Deepinder Goyal drawing zero and the Kamaths capping fixed pay, to ESOP-heavy packages that hide comp from the burn line. Reading it before your own all-hands sharpens what number you are willing to defend to your team.

  • Indian founder pay is increasingly ESOP and performance-driven, not fixed salary (total comp jumped 204% YoY on ESOP exercises), so your team's read of who earns what depends entirely on whether you disclose equity gains too.
  • Visible restraint sets the tone: founders like Goyal (INR 0) and Falguni Nayar (INR 78 lakh) use their own low fixed pay as a public signal of capital discipline the whole team can see.
  • Fixed pay averaged only INR 3.8 Cr while headline numbers ran to tens of crores via ESOPs, a gap that will fuel your rumor mill unless you explain the bands and the philosophy behind them.
Open on inc42.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How transparent should I be with the team about runway, salaries, and hard news?

Read with it

  1. This is the honest post-mortem, not the launch hype. Buffer ran fully public salaries for a decade (17 to 75 people) and this... Buffer Article · 15 min read Reflecting on a Decade of Transparent Salaries at Buffer Courtney Seiter and the Buffer team
  2. The definitive playbook for saying hard news first and plainly. Steinberg (People lead at Sennder, ex-Zynga/Facebook) is... First Round Review Article · 20 min read How to Lead and Rally a Company Through a Layoff Beth Steinberg (interviewed by First Round)
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →