He revealed this to his followers on Instagram during an ‘ask me anything’ session.
“I don’t believe I should get a good salary till the company is profitable. My salary at CRED is Rs 15,000 per month and I can survive as I sold my company FreeCharge in the past,” Shah wrote in reply to a question about his low salary at Cred.
FreeCharge, which was founded by Shah, was acquired by now beleaguered ecommerce platform Snapdeal for $400 million in a cash- and-stock deal in 2015.
His reply received a lot of attention on Twitter. A user by the name of @Iampatelajeet posted a screenshot of the story with a tweet saying, “There are CEOs who take salaries in crores then we have Kunal Shah.”
There are CEOs who take salaries in crores then we have Kunal Shah. 💖 https://t.co/aahaDJmdAm
— Ajeet Patel | Leetcode ⚡ (@Iampatelajeet) 1677413690000
Shah’s response to the question received mixed reactions on Twitter.
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Another user, by the name of @AnishDe10, wrote, “Bro what are you talking about most of his startups are loss-making and burning investors’ money he should take 0 salary and focus on making the startups profitable rather than making bonfire the fundings that he gets.”Yet another user wrote: “Using this as the reason he’d pay less to employees, maybe.”
“It’s pretty absurd to me that in the age of near perfect information, most of the world still falls for the “I only pay myself $1 salary,” said one user
“Founder equity is worth 100x+ any reasonable salary and they get taxed less on it,” wrote @debarghya_das.
Shah, replying to a question on why Cred isn’t profitable yet, said that the tech companies invest capital for several years in building large distribution and engagement before they monetise.
@Iampatelajeet for all the people in the replies talking about how his startup is loss making, read his answer. I t… https://t.co/EdsdjMYrNF
— Rakesh (@rakcq) 1677481944000
Shah, in an interaction with ET earlier had said that the company would focus on cutting losses and growing revenue, as the fintech startup kicks off its monetisation journey.
His remarks came after the company’s losses widened to Rs 1,279 crore in 2021-2022 (FY22) from Rs 524 crore in FY21. Revenue, on the other hand, had grown more than four-fold to Rs 422 crore in FY22 from Rs 95 crore in FY21.
“The investment we have made in building our brand, community and products has been a conscious choice, and we have not deviated from that plan. Revenue growth and bringing down losses is going to be a norm going forward, not just because this year we have to do that. We are well positioned because of the choice we made of going after a certain customer segment and the monetisation avenues we are focussing on,” Shah had told ET.