This happens more than you think. There are plenty of ex-tech engineers who started their own contract dev companies with just a couple of local (SFBA) folks w

This happens more than you think. There are plenty of ex-tech engineers who started their own contract dev companies with just a couple of local (SFBA) folks who run things and assign work to inexpensive programmers, designers, etc elsewhere in the country/world. Typical current contract dev rate in the SFBA is in the $250/hr range (negotiable down to $150-175/hr for larger contracts).