A recent report on founder compensation from European VC Creandum has revealed that a startup founder in the CEO seat is not likely to be the Best-paid member of the company’s C-suite. The highest earners are typically founders who step into the roles of Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Founders have generally refrained from giving themselves pay rises as of late, with early-stage founder salaries largely unaltered since 2022. The report collected data from over 700 participants across roughly 50 cities in Europe, with women constituting 16% of respondents.

In terms of ranking, the CRO gets the highest salary, with a median payment of €90k. This is followed by the CFO at €72k, Chief Technology Officer at €69k, and the CEO and Chief Operating Officer at the bottom with medians of €60k and €57k, respectively.

There is a notable geographical disparity in founder compensation, with U.K. founders paying themselves above €90k on average, while founders in the Baltics take in just over a third of that (∼ €34k) averagely. Founders in France and Germany earn the next highest salaries, being Europe’s second largest start-up ecosystems.

The most substantial salary increase appears between the seed and Series A funding stages. The median founder salary during the seed stage hovers at €75k, which shoots up to €120k at Series A, reflecting a 60% increase.

Ownership tends to decrease as funding rounds progress. Pre-seed founders retain just under 39% of their startups. At the seed stage, this figure drops to 27%, and by Series A, founders typically maintain just 15%.

Source: Which founder’s paid the most in the startup C-suite?