The "founders take no salary" norm causes more bad decisions than it prevents. The right baseline is market-aligned.

A long-standing Indian startup culture norm: founders shouldn't take meaningful salary until profitability. The reasoning sounds noble; the operational consequence is worse decision quality, faster burnout, and selection against founders without family wealth. Most strong investors now push back actively on this norm. The healthier baseline is market-aligned founder salary as soon as the company can support it. Burning 40% less mental energy on personal finance frees up the founder's best work. The savings of paying founders below market is rarely worth the decision-quality cost. The cultural shift is happening — slowly.