| Role | Person | Type | US Benchmark / yr (Kruze/Carta 2025) |
SEA-Adjusted / yr (–50% location discount) |
YC Pre-Seed Draw / yr (lean but livable) |
Monthly Cash (SEA) | 18-mo Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO / Founder | Poppet Celdran | Market Rate | $147,000 | $73,500 | $50,000 | $6,125 | $110,250 | SEA-adjusted seed CEO salary. Covers HCMC expat living + professional costs. Defensible to any VC who asks. Kruze 2025: seed-stage CEO avg $147K US = ~$73.5K SEA. |
| CTO / Co-Founder | Nguyen Minh Tri | Market Rate | $155,000 | $77,500 | $42,000 | $6,458 | $116,250 | Technical founders earn slightly more than CEO at this stage (Kruze data). Bien Hoa-based; Vietnam local market CTO rate is $3K–$5K/mo at this skill level. $6.5K is full market. Applied at 50% US discount. |
| CFO / Financial Advisor | Thắng Chiến Trần | Market Rate | $180,000 (fractional: $7.5K/mo) |
$54,000 ($4,500/mo) |
— | $4,500 | $81,000 | Fractional CFO model. Current equity arrangement values his service at $400/mo — $4,500 is what this role would cost at fractional market rate in SEA. Full-time startup CFO in Vietnam: $5K–$8K/mo. |
| CMO (open role) | TBD | Market Rate | $160,000 | $72,000 | — | $6,000 | $108,000 | Senior marketing exec at a marketplace startup in SEA. Covers community strategy, growth, brand, and investor marketing. Current equity-for-service saves this entire line. |
| Corporate Legal Counsel (open) | TBD | Market Rate | $183,000 (Carta 2025 legal avg) |
$60,000 | — | $5,000 | $90,000 | Legal salaries rose 10% in H1 2025 (Carta). SEA-adjusted for a corporate counsel covering Vietnam, Delaware, and cross-border compliance. Equity-for-service arrangement eliminates this cost entirely. |
| Executive Team Subtotal (market rate) | $28,083 / mo | $505,500 | ||||||
| Role | Type | Monthly (USD) | 18-mo Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QA Engineer / Junior Frontend | Local Hire | $700 | $12,600 | Vietnam junior dev rate. Testing, mobile QA, UI fixes. Frees Tri for architecture. |
| Seller Success / Ops Lead | Local Hire | $900 | $16,200 | Filipino-Vietnamese bilingual. Seller onboarding, dispute resolution, order pipeline. |
| Community Manager | Local Hire | $700 | $12,600 | Filipino kababayan in HCMC. FB groups, church activations, Founding Seller campaign. |
| Social Media / Content Creator | Contract | $400 | $7,200 | Part-time. Reels, seller spotlights, campaign visuals. Filipino creator in HCMC. |
| Executive Virtual Assistant | Contract | $400 | $7,200 | Remote Philippines-based VA. Notion, scheduling, investor follow-ups. |
| Operational Hires Subtotal | $3,100 / mo | $55,800 | ||
| Category | Monthly | 18-mo Total | Key Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free-tier stack | $0 | $0 | Vercel, Supabase (free), Make, Notion, Slack, GitHub, Trello, Rebrandly, Grey Business |
| Paid tools | $162 | $2,838 | Google Workspace $72 · MISA SME $30 · Canva Pro $15 · Claude Pro $20 · Hostinger DNS $4 · Wise ~$20/mo est. |
| Supabase Pro (from Mo 6) | $25 | $300 | 12 months only (Mo 6–18). Database scale-up trigger. |
| Tools Subtotal | ~$187 / mo avg | $3,138 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Delaware C-Corp (BridgeTech Labs) + Vietnam Entity (Zen Tech Asia Co., Ltd.) | $3,500 |
| SAFE Legal Documentation | $1,000 |
| MVP Launch Event / Community Activation | $1,500 |
| Brand Assets & Seller Photography | $800 |
| VNPay Integration / Compliance | $500 |
| Contingency / Misc | $2,000 |
| One-Time Subtotal | $9,300 |
The difference between Scenario A and Scenario B is $433,440 over 18 months. That's the capital cost of not having equity-for-service arrangements for Thắng, your CMO, and Legal Counsel. Each of those three roles, left on the equity model, saves you roughly $144K each in opportunity cost. This is the most important number on this page.
Paying at full market rates is entirely defensible after you hit traction milestones — 200 active sellers, $3K MRR, Node 2 in preparation. At that point, a Seed raise at $2M funds proper exec compensation. Doing it pre-traction on a $750K SAFE is what gets founders in trouble with VCs asking "why is 76% of your raise going to people?"
The optimal structure is Scenario A as the base, with CEO + CTO receiving a meaningful increase at the 6-month traction milestone. If SariKo hits 200 sellers and $3K MRR by Month 3–4, Poppet's draw scales from $2.5K → $4.5K/mo and Tri's from $1.5K → $3K/mo. Still well below Scenario B, but fair. Document the trigger in the SAFE side letter so investors expect it.
With only $176K left after Scenario B burn, there is no capital for Node 2 (Quê Tôi), City License expansion ops, VC round legal costs, or a bridge if the Seed raise takes 6+ months longer than expected. The Pangea roadmap — Singapore, KL, Dubai — requires capital that Scenario B simply doesn't leave room for.
YC and SEA VCs want founder salaries that say: "I'm committed, not desperate." The sweet spot for a pre-seed founder in SEA is $36K–$60K/year ($3K–$5K/month). Above that raises red flags on capital discipline. Below $2K/month raises questions about sustainability. Poppet at $3K/mo after the raise is perfect positioning.
Having Thắng, CMO, and Legal Counsel on equity-for-service isn't just a cash saving — it's a signal of conviction. When a CFO accepts equity over cash, it means they believe in the upside. VCs read this immediately. It's one of the most powerful early team signals you can show in a pre-seed deck.
Kruze Consulting 2025 Startup CEO Salary Report: Seed-stage CEO average $147,000/yr; non-CEO technical founders average ~$155,000/yr. Based on anonymized payroll from 450+ US VC-backed startups. CEO draw figures reflect US-centric data.
Carta H1 2025 State of Startup Compensation: Legal function salaries up 10% to $183,000 average for new hires. Product/engineering at $189,000. All US figures.
CFO Benchmark (Bennett Financials 2025): Startup CFO base salary $150K–$250K; fractional CFO $5K–$15K/month. Used fractional model ($7.5K/mo US → $4.5K SEA) as Thắng is part-time service.
SEA Location Adjustment: 50% discount applied uniformly. Monk's Hill Ventures and Wavemaker Partners publicly reference Vietnam/HCMC salary benchmarks at 45–55% below US equivalents for equivalent-stage companies. Singapore would be ~30% below US. HCMC is 50–55% below US.
YC Pre-Seed Guidance: Per 80,000 Hours analysis and Quora YC founder thread: founders with VC backing typically draw $50K–$100K/yr at pre-seed. Paul Graham's recommendation: "normal but not luxurious." Used $50K as YC pre-seed draw reference in the comparison column.
Scenario A figure correction: Scenario A total includes $72K founder draws + $55.8K ops + $3.2K tools + $9.3K one-time = $140,300 deployed. Reserve = $609,700.