Waseem Daher

26d ago

Founder Salary Confessions: How Much Should You Pay Yourself? AMA with 3x Founder Waseem Daher

Hey Product Hunt! I'm Waseem Daher, co-founder of Pilot, the largest startup-focused accounting company in the US. I'm a 3x founder (my previous ventures were acquired by Oracle and Dropbox) who's raised over $120M from Sequoia, Stripe, Jeff Bezos, and more.

Today we're releasing our 2025 Founder Salary Report with data from 1,800+ founders, and the findings might surprise you:

  • Founder salaries dropped 43% in the past year

  • AI founders are bucking the trend (paying themselves more)

  • Bootstrapped companies jumped 57%

  • Only 5.4% of founders pay themselves nothing (down from 9% last year)

We founders talk endlessly about burn rates, runway, and valuations but no one talks about what they pay themselves. It's time to change that.

Hiten Shah

1yr ago

Quality Check by Pilot.com - Grade your startup bookkeeping in seconds with PilotGPT

Is your accountant actually doing a good job with your books? Let PilotGPT tell you, and also give you some advice on how to improve the business. Connect your QuickBooks we'll do the rest.

Gillian Morris

6yr ago

Pilot Tax - Tax prep service for startups

From the team that brought you Pilot bookkeeping (bookkeeping for startups, powered by humans and software) comes Pilot Tax. High-quality tax prep from a company that understands what startups need, because they are one.

Hiten Shah

7yr ago

Pilot - Bookkeeping for startups, powered by humans and software

Pilot is a bookkeeping company that focuses on startups—with a twist. Their bookkeepers are assisted by software that automates the most error-prone pieces, so the books are always incredibly accurate. Kind of like having a cyborg army working for you, only way less scary.

Gillian O'Brien

1yr ago

Founder Salary Report by Pilot.com - 2023 salary data from founders across the globe

"What should I be paying myself?” is one of the most common questions founders ask, and getting solid data is tough. We surveyed 750 founders worldwide to find the answers you need, including salary ranges, averages, and distributions.