Ooof, those rates are indeed pretty low. I get why you're doing it, but could having access to more engineers easier maybe help get you to profitability faster?

Ooof, those rates are indeed pretty low. I get why you're doing it, but could having access to more engineers easier maybe help get you to profitability faster? I find interviewing a bunch of good people, making offers and then having them turn down the position because of money to be a big waste of time/money. How many hours/dollars do you spend in that 6 months? I had students leaving my classes at General Assembly in 2014 start between 50-90k, with a pretty good bell curve between. I think the market has gotten tougher for them since then, but whenever a strong student got an offer for 50k I told them to push for 65k. I'm a senior engineer at my current startup, live in the Boston area and yea... a 90k salary would have me turning down the position likely, unless you had some really good benefits. I'm trying to think creatively about benefits that would make me consider a 90k salary. If you were able to get some bulk rates (making it cheaper than just paying more $) for employees, and paid for things like: laundry service, some amount of Uber credit per month, parking, crossfit membership, phone plans, tax preparation, auto insurance, etc... that could perhaps entice me. Find the pain points in my life and help me fix them. Perhaps this is just the state of health insurance, but I've been finding my health insurance getting worse and worse too; and even with a 'decent' PPO, I find myself getting random bills for junk the insurance wouldn't cover. Some type of employer-filled reimbursement/savings plan would help there. I don't think I ever got a medical bill 10 years ago. The #1 thing that could entice me, over salary, would be some way for my employer to help me secure a decent mortgage and help with the down payment. I'd like to buy around Boston, but 20% down payment on $600k is a kick in the teeth (I'm aware you can do lower, but then there's PMI and such). If an employer helped me secure that, and make part of the down payment... as long as the salary paid my mortgage / student loans / food, then I'd be happy camper for a while and not complain about what the technical income number was.