I obviously shouldn't discuss the funding details of my company, however, I think there's a definite relationship between how much time the founders can afford to spend on the company, and how well it does. Certainly my business would not be anywhere near as far as it currently is if I could only devote 1 day a week to it.
I'm sure there is a relationship between founders salary, founders equity, funding arrangements and profitability of the firm.
Unfortunately there are too many other variables to be able to pluck much signal out of the noise.
I do think it it's possible to pay someone too much, to the point where they either think that they are already successful before having achieved the goal, or to the point where their interests begin to diverge from the investors.
