It is a tough choice, especially when you're pre-VC... since at that point you have a few hundred thousand, and you want to build a solid small team while keepi

It is a tough choice, especially when you're pre-VC... since at that point you have a few hundred thousand, and you want to build a solid small team while keeping your runway long. Once you've raised a Series A round, though, then you should be going for quality over quantity and paying people what they want (within reason). Since at that point it still is about runway but you probably have significantly more cash to play with (a couple of million dollars). I don't think being too cheap at that point makes a lot of sense. It is interesting that pg and a lot of YC startups are taught to be cheap, but there's a fine line between cheapness and efficient use of capital.