I'm not sure where $6M would carry a team of 30 for 4 years, but it certainly isn't in any of the tech hubs. Total cost for an employee around SF is between $15

I'm not sure where $6M would carry a team of 30 for 4 years, but it certainly isn't in any of the tech hubs. Total cost for an employee around SF is between $150-180k (office, taxes, benefits, etc). For the sake of being generous, let's say we're in Seattle and it's 120k: 120,000 * 30 * 4 = $14.4M Even at 60k total cost you break 6M in 4 years: 60,000 * 30 * 4 = $7.2M > It's big for the average series A for YC That's not true, it would be huge for a Seed, but that's a fairly middle of the road series A. Big would be in the 10M+ range.