Be honest that this is a temporary stretch, not a permanent way to run your life. If you can, cover your basics from a personal buffer you set aside before starting, and treat that runway for yourself as seriously as the company's runway. If you are putting your own money in to keep the lights on, document it properly as a loan or capital rather than mixing it into personal spending, so your cap table and your finances both stay legible. Set a clear marker, a revenue level or a round, at which you begin paying yourself even a small salary, and write it down so it does not slip forever. Avoid funding your life on high-interest credit. Any money you inject or later draw has tax and accounting implications, and those rules change, so confirm the cleanest structure with a CA before you rely on it.
A curated summary to orient you, not advice. The resources below are the real value.
2 hand-picked resources, 2 India-specific, 1 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it A practical India-first reference for keeping personal and company finances (and their tax) cleanly separate.
From ClearTax by ClearTax
Open cleartax.in →Why we picked it A no-nonsense, ad-light India personal-finance site: plain math and free calculators for emergency funds, goals, and asset allocation, with no product to sell you.
From Freefincal by M. Pattabiraman
Open freefincal.com →The same ground, over in Money, pricing & model, our Starting Up track.
