Maybe, maybe not. But you can still find pretty kick ass employees by somewhat spreading the wealth around. Make sure they have a great office and they're well

Maybe, maybe not. But you can still find pretty kick ass employees by somewhat spreading the wealth around. Make sure they have a great office and they're well taken care of. Perhaps have a bonus pool. Offer flexibility. Etc. It might not matter much in the valley, where every startup does it, but it will if you're building a business in say, Europe. I personally don't believe that just because you retain most equity as a founder in a "lifestyle business" you can't find equally and/or better employees. You just have to focus on different things. It's just a different game (organic, slower growth, longer term), and you probably don't want to be handing out equity to people if you run a profitable bootstrapped business.