Founder Salary Report 2025

Mean salaries were down 43% this year

Up until last year, salaries were rising. This year, they declined significantly, both by mean and median. Almost twice as many founders paid themselves less than $100k this year compared to last year.

There were 287% more AI startups this year

AI startups took over this year’s dataset. Last year, 14% of founders were running AI startups. This year, it was 40%—an increase of 287%. This is noteworthy given the average age of the startup in our report is seven years. A significant number have pivoted to AI in the last year.

AI founders make substantially more than non-AI founders (+20%). Though they too have taken a significant and commensurate pay cut this year.

A tale of shrinking term sheets

Funding is down significantly this year. Last year, the average startup in our survey raised $11 million with a median of $4 million. This year, the average was down by one-third and the median down by 8x. This does not necessarily suggest that is their total capitalization—only that it’s how much outside funding they raised. A founder could be using their own money. In fact, many are.