No, within reason, and pretending otherwise helps no one. Investors do not want you distracted by money stress or burning out, and a founder who cannot cover their own life makes worse decisions. What they watch is proportion: a salary that comfortably covers your real costs is expected and fine; one that looks like you are extracting wealth before building it is not. Norms vary by stage and city, and many funds have rough guidelines. Set your pay to a reasonable, defensible number, put it in the plan openly, and revisit it as the company can afford more. Underpaying yourself into hardship is not the virtue signal it is sometimes treated as.
2 resources, 1 India-specific.
The best reminder that avoiding ruin beats chasing returns, and that wealth is the money you don't spend. The whole founder concentration problem, told as stories.
From The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
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.
