Startup Q&A
What the average annual CEO salary rate (SAAS, Fintech, or B2B CRM) during the early stage (pre-seed, seed) in SV?
CEO and Founder of Kruze Consulting
Table of contents
My team and I handle payroll, taxes and the accounting for seed and venture-funded startups, and we analyzed CEO pay at over 125 startups; most of them in Silicon Valley. The average CEO pay for seed funded startups is $119,000 - but it does vary by industry. This chart breaks down seed funded CEO salary by industry:
I don’t have data on B2B CRM companies, but do have the data on seed funded Fintech and SaaS company pay:
- Fintech: $124,000
- SaaS: $113,000
I’d have to imagine that seed funded B2B CRM CEOs get paid about the same.
The question also asks about pre-seed CEO pay. My company only works with companies that have raised real seed funding, so my dataset starts to get less robust. However, quickly looking at numbers that I do have, over half of the companies did not pay their CEO anything before the seed round. So I’d say that the media pre-seed CEO pay is zero. The average appears to be $40,000, but it is very common for pre-seed CEOs to not get paid anything.
I’ve got more info on Startup CEO Pay on my firm’s blog - hope that this was helpful!
Table of contents
READY TO CONNECT FOR A FREE CONSULTATION?
We are the experts at helping seed/VC-backed Delaware C-Corps with their accounting and finances!
Talk with a real accountant, not a generic salesperson!
Help us get in touch
Recent questions
Top viewed questions
- What happens if the IRS audits me and I do not have the receipt for an expense (assuming it was a legitimate expense)?
- How should convertible note financing be handled on the balance sheet?
- How do startups account for equity and fundraising on the Balance Sheet?
- For startups incorporating in Delaware, what firms are good registered agents to use?
- What are average startup founder salaries in 2023?