Founder money foundations

My co-founder and I put in different amounts of savings. Should our salaries reflect that?

The short answer

Keep two things separate in your head. Salary is pay for the work you do now, so if you are both working full time it usually makes sense to draw similar salaries regardless of who had more savings to fall back on. The money each of you put into the company is capital or a loan, and that gets recognised on the cap table or as a documented loan, not by paying one founder a bigger monthly cheque. Mixing the two, higher salary for the richer founder, muddies both your finances and your equity story, and it can breed resentment. Agree the salary logic openly and write down how each founder's contribution is being treated. Capital contributions, loans, and salaries each carry different tax and accounting treatment, and the rules change, so confirm the clean structure with a CA. Fair and legible beats clever here.

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Terms in this answer

Co-Founder Cap Table

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