Kruze Consulting helps a ton of B2B start-ups manage their books and finance so their latest data on comp for start-ups is super helpful.
Across 400+ startups, mostly B2B, they break down comp.
For seed stage:
- CEO: $147,000
- CTO: $134,000
- COO / Operations: $135,000
- President: $92,000
- CPO / Product: $149,000
That does seem a bit high for seed stage CEOs in my experience, I think most are taking “low end of normal” salaries. But the data here speaks for itself!
And across stages:
- The average salary for seed-stage CEOs grew from $132,000 in 2024 to $147,000 in 2025
- Series A CEO salaries rose from $179,000 to $203,000 over the same period.
- Series B CEO salaries have continued to decline since hitting a peak in 2022. In 2024, these salaries were $227,000 and have slid to $214,000 in 2025.
Every start-up is different, and funded differently. The tighter cash is, the more cautious everyone should be. But rough guidelines for founder comp today across all Kruz clients:
- Seed: ~$130,000
- Series A: $180,000 to $190,000
- Series B: $250,000 to $260,000
Good stuff. More here.
Now, somewhat interestly, Pilot found that founder salaries dropped materially last year. From $132,000 on average … to $75,000!
Now Pilot has a broader customer start-up base than mostly B2B amd SaaS Kruze, and Kruze likely won’t take on some of the tiny clients that Pilot does. So I suspect Kruze’s data is more on point for most founders reading SaaStr.
Pilot found:
- The average founder salary plunged from $132,000 to $75,000 in one year. That’s a 43% cut.
- 60% of founders pay themselves less than $100,000—nearly double last year’s 37%.
- Fewer founders are working for free. Only 5.4% take zero salary, down from 9% last year.
Still, that $132,000 number last year at least for founders doing well pretty much ties to the Kruze data of ~$130,000 at Seed if business is doing well and can afford it.
That’s what I’d take from all this data. If your early stage start-up has plenty of runway, is profitable, or can just afford it, aim for about $130k salary for the founders. Less if it stresses the startup or puts it at risk. And then more as you scale.
The Pilot dataset here:
