I personally know the founders of three YC startups that are functionally dead (raised capital, not developing anything, basically laid off everyone but the founder(s)) but are not on this list. I'd bet it's at least twice that number.
Looking back, maybe I should have just done the illegal thing and gotten pardoned.
The others end up at another Series B+ startup or go to a MANGA company if they can grind leetcode for a bit and get an interview.
Or do you mean that they're zombie startups that make enough to pay the founder 200k/year?
We had open salary bands so we were all paid OK - especially our couple ~entry level folks at $100-120k. It was strange times in my eyes, though. They hired an HR person whose first act was to raise the c-suite salaries to market rate ($200k+) while the business still had negligible income but closed a round.
It is good to be in the owner class, I guess.
It's a pretty decent compensation though. The base salary of a mid-level position at Amazon with substantially better equity terms (no cliff, no one deciding your bonus will be cut without your input, etc). It's a far cry from the PG ideal of salaryless founders surviving on instant ramen in their garage.
It's not unequivocally better, but it's certainly a trade-off that some people would be willing to make.
The LP has 20 startups they can afford it, we on the other hand have lot more skin in the game than they, and not being able to afford say proper health-care or having to commute 2+ hours everyday affects the success of the startup lot more than extra 50-100k extra is going to cost the fund in a meaningful way.
At a more fundamental level, it an agency problem found in any management compensation theory. Investors/Shareholders need to keep the management motivated and vested in the success of the organization, if that means 200k salaries today it doesn't really matter.
So, not "functionally dead" then. ;)