It's never legally required to pay the founders. The founders' equity, which should be vesting over time, can be considered their only compensation. Be forewarned that this can still lead to massive tax pains later on if an 83(b) election isn't filed[1].

No matter how broke you are, you should be able to find a lawyer who can help you get set up. You can use the same founding documents, amendments, and appendices for your future bootstrapped ventures, so it's worth doing it right.

Some firms will take equity in exchange for legal work, so that's also something to consider. I've never used a firm like that, so I don't know how that all works.

A dangerous and extremely common side effect of doing your own legal work is in-fighting with co-founders. When you have rock-solid, thorough founding documents, you've already agreed on what to do for an exhaustive list of contingenies: what happens if someone wants to leave, if someone isn't pulling their weight, if someone dies, etc. etc. My founding docs are about 50 pages.

It's extremely important that you set everything up right, and it shouldn't cost you more than $1,500. I've known firms that will give you a boilerplate package for your particular state for about $500, so shop around.

1. http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2008/02/15/what-is-an-83...