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Yeah no one talks about the cost of engineering. Most quality engineers are looking for $150-$200k salary to start. So a team of 5 is easily $1m after benefits,
by ryanSrich 5y ago
Yeah no one talks about the cost of engineering. Most quality engineers are looking for $150-$200k salary to start. So a team of 5 is easily $1m after benefits, not to mention any equity grants. And that’s before the founders take a salary, before they hire any designers, or marketing, or sales people. The cost of starting a tech company is still low relative to other fields, but it’s increasing drastically.
- ramraj07 5y agoAs OP mentioned, this works for years if a team of founders agree to take minimum wage salaries for a few years. If you need to recruit you’re OOL.
- ryanSrich 5y agoYeah I agree to an extent. Founders need to get the business to an MVP and some revenue for B2B SaaS. But if you’re growing at any attractive rate, you’ll outgrow that very quickly. It’s that next step that becomes more difficult when hiring engineers. That’s typically your seed round. For example, let’s say you raise $3m. That’s a nice amount until you realize you need 3-5 engineers that are all an average of $200k/yr fully loaded.
- ddingus 5y agoSeems nobody is really investing in that scenario. With modest, to low investment, there should also be very modest returns. By that, I mean taking less to extend runway, but then also have it all pay very nicely on take off.