[Amezarak]

> We paid market prices plus the usual worthless questionable stock options, but everyone we liked had multiple offers.

And they didn't take yours. I don't mean to be critical, but in my experience, when a company says they pay "market prices", they mean the market in their imagination instead of the real market. Maybe the offer wasn't big enough. There was some reason those candidates turned you down.

And sure, maybe you couldn't afford to make bigger offers. Not all businesses are viable. If I could hire labor for $0.50/hour I'd own a business, but I can't.

> emc/vmware

VMWare was in the news recently as cutting 900 jobs. Maybe they are hiring. In which case I expect we would find that expensive senior developers are being laid off and cheap new grads are being hired.

[NotSammyHagar]

right, fair points. i agree market rate is usually code for bullshit. a year or 2 ago vmware was a competitor. as far as salaries, I can say something about the range we paid. I thought it was high for a startup. an intern might make 75k (I know google and msft pay more), a person with a few years (~5) of exp makes 130k and a senior engr makes 150+. a very senior eng. or lead might make over 180k. sure, google pays more. but these are decent salaries.