You can do a lot better than that internationally. When I was in the startup founder world my peers were paying their developers about $30K/year, and getting d

You can do a lot better than that internationally. When I was in the startup founder world my peers were paying their developers about $30K/year, and getting decent (but not great) talent in Thailand, Vietnam, India, Eastern Europe, etc. The downsides are that all your employees are a.) remote b.) not great English speakers and c.) generally mediocre developers, and this all has negative impact on developer velocity and the caliber of features you can ship. If you're chasing a niche this is often a great trade-off, because it can make your business profitable even at revenue levels that can't support a big-company product. If you're chasing the next big thing this is usually a stupid idea, because somebody's going to raise $50M, hire top-quality ex-FANGs at half a million each, put them in a room together, and win the market before you can ship your first couple features.