Remember that the signing bonuses are often to pay people for equity that they're walking away from. This isn't common in east coast tech, but it used to be ver

Remember that the signing bonuses are often to pay people for equity that they're walking away from. This isn't common in east coast tech, but it used to be very common in financial services. 60% pay hikes - well, you have to get out of the cost-plus model of talent. If the 20 best engineers will dramatically increase your chance of getting to a $20 billion valuation, then the money being quoted is actually rather small. If the same guys are installing ERP systems on an hourly rate for a large company like E&Y, of course their value is much less.