The Health Narrative, Career Chill, Surviving Zero 🥗

Ever wondered how much are the founders at your startup job paying themselves?

There’s some pretty detailed research about founder salaries and the stats are a bit surprising. 

They don’t earn a bomb: In fact, nearly half the founders, 46%, are making less than six figures. That range was more common among bootstrapped founders, 69% of whom reported paying themselves less than $100,000, compared to 42% of founders who had raised VC funding.

Surviving on zero dollars: That’s right! 3% of VC-backed founders and 18% of bootstrapped founders reported paying themselves a $0 salary ⭕. 

Generous paychecks are few: The Only 2% of VC-backed founders and 6% of bootstrapped founders reported paying themselves $300,000 or more.

The No.1 cause for the lost enthusiasm for plant-based meat? Prices

Plant-based meat is rarely cheaper than real meat. And with inflation, fewer people are willing to pay a price premium for food 📈. 

Apart from this, many people have started questioning the health narrative of PBA. Lobbyists have been taking out ads in The New York Times and other newspapers raising health concerns about plant-based meat substitutes calling them “ultra-processed imitations”. 

And then there is the politics of it. In the US, where ~5% of consumers identify as vegetarian, meat-eating has  become weirdly political.

Cracker Barrel was recently accused of being too “woke” for introducing plant-based sausage.

79% of the employees in the U.S. experience work-related stress every month, according to the American Psychological Association’s recent Work and Well-being Survey.

This despite the fact that work has become more flexible and hybrid in the last two years. It goes without saying that its not just the work culture that affects stress, but also the type of occupation and its importance in society.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network, or O*NET, ranked 873 occupations by level of stress. 

The least stressful job on the list is, drumroll please, Environmental Economist 🪴. It also pays a median annual salary of $105,630.

Reasons for the low stress? 

Environmental economists have fewer targets or bottom lines to meet and have a great deal of freedom within their role, according to 81% of O*NET’s respondents. Plus there’s the feeling of contributing to the planet. 

You obviously need a masters degree of a PhD in a related field to get into this line. But once you get the job, you’ll spend most of your time conducting research on environmental topics like public and private land use, air and water pollution and endangered species preservation.