Founder Compensation Survey Results, Susa Venture Fellows Program, Arc Launches Treasury

🚀Arc Raises $20M Series A, Launches Treasury Publicly🚀

Today one of our GSBuilds partners Arc, announced that it raised a $20M Series A. Arc converts startups’ future revenue into upfront capital, deposits that funding into an FDIC eligible account, and provides insights to drive their growth. They also launched Arc Treasury to redefine the digital banking experience for the newest generation of companies. You can read more from TechCrunch here, as well as the company’s announcement.

Take a second to join us in celebrating their success on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Founder Compensation Survey

Nearly 100 GSB founders from the classes of 2000 through 2023 completed our Founder Compensation Survey. Thank you! Here are some highlights:

• 73% have raised venture funding, while 14% are bootstrapped and the rest funded with grants, debt, or other forms of capital

• 86% of founders worked some period of time without paying themselves, with the most common amount of time being 6 months - 1 year (30%)

Salary data (by funding stage where appropriate) —

• Founders who have raised <$1M and are paying themselves

  • Average: $100,000

  • Median: $85,000

• Founders who have raised $1M - $5M

  • Average: $124,000

  • Median: $120,000

• Founders who have raised $5M - $10M

  • Average: $135,000

  • Median: $150,000

• Founders who have raised $10M - $25M

  • Average: $184,000

  • Median: $195,000

• A minority of founders receive an annual bonus or additional cash compensation, and the values vary widely for those who do, from $10,000 - $250,000

• Roughly half of founders do not anticipate receiving a raise in the next year, but those who do project substantial raises. 38% (of all respondents) anticipate raises of over 10%

• The vast majority of founders (80%) determine their own salaries or decide with their co-founders. As companies mature, investors and board members are more likely to set their salary

• 90% of founders have not sold any secondaries or taken money off the table yet. For those who have, the amounts generally range from $100,000 - $500,000

Thank you to all of the founders who completed the survey, and for the great suggestions around future iterations - we’ll be back with an updated survey soon around ownership % at each stage, how many co-founders the team has, and other key decisions.

Susa Venture Fellows Program

Are you interested in VC? If so, Susa Ventures has opened applications for their third cohort of Venture Fellows! 

The Susa Venture Fellows Program is designed to give aspiring venture investors an all-access experience sourcing and evaluating deals alongside the Susa investment team as well as supporting Susa portfolio companies.

The program is a part-time 5-month experience for people looking to hone their skills as venture investors and make a career transition into VC. The program is a 5-hour/week commitment and works around the schedules of fellows with full-time jobs or academic responsibilities. The program will run from September 20, 2022 to March 7, 2023.

The program has been wildly successful, with nearly 50% of the 2020 cohort and 25% of the 2021 cohort already working in VC at firms like Susa Ventures and a16z. Applications are due on August 21, 2022 at 11:59pm PT.

2022-2023 Partnerships

GSBuilds is in the process of finalizing its Founder Stack partners for the 2022-2023 year (which runs September 1 - September 1). Partner resources are shared with the GSBuilds community on a regular basis, including through our quarterly newsletter, which is read by 3,500+ founders, investors, and general startup enthusiasts in the community. Partners have received dozens of referrals from participating in the GSBuilds Founder Stack program. If you are interested in becoming a GSBuilds partner, you can fill out this form.

Have news, events, or announcements you'd like featured? Let us know! (team@gsbuilds.co)

As always, here’s to the builders!

Disclaimer: GSBuilds is not affiliated with the Stanford University Graduate School of Business or with Stanford University. All views expressed in GSBuilds communications, including this newsletter, are not necessarily those of Stanford University or any of its affiliates.