I actually have a very similar situation. Even similar amounts of money. We got two more developers and a manager doing the trendy cool research-y stuff. A yea

I actually have a very similar situation. Even similar amounts of money. We got two more developers and a manager doing the trendy cool research-y stuff. A year later the whole group closed the working product discontinued, and I ended up leaving the company. Don't get me wrong, I hate the Google wanna-be companies. If wrongly applied creates an environment of primadonnas and self-appointed gurus. Been there, too. Still, it is very hard to find how to have good programmers happy. Perhaps the best thing is start listening to them. In the right amounts. And make whatever is given valued, humans tend only to value what they miss.