[w00bl3ywook]

Sparkfun has not had to compete talent just yet. Wait until the competition for talent in Colorado reaches SV level. Sparkfun will have to stop relying on "I want to work at a cool/fun/relaxed place badly" and start paying market rates for talent. Take a look at their crazy application process. It's built around how badly labor wants to work there. This strategy doesn't work in SV anymore.. Good candidates want to get paid, not have "fun times" at work. Sparkfun's talent strategy is built on concepts that are well over 15 years old.

[pdeuchler]

I agree with this comment as it applies to the general tech ecosystem here, but Sparkfun might actually be exempt from this because it is legitimately a very cool place to just be around... But that said yeah, it is very apparent that too many companies here are coasting on the general area's appeal. We're just starting to hit the point where that won't cut it anymore, and I think a lot of companies that have gotten by on quality talent at cut rate prices due to the lack of competition and the inherent desirability of the area are in for a serious rude awakening.

Salaries are already starting to rapidly increase (more than they already were) in Boulder just with the announcement of companies like Google moving large offices here and it's been very disconcerting to see companies resort to the same tactics used by Bay Area companies to circumvent paying people (company commuter busses so you can live in more affordable areas, $500 ski passes instead of $5k raises, free food, etc etc). This area can't really even bank on the usual scam of promising big exists since those are much more rare in these parts. Watching the economics of the whole situation has been very interesting, especially when you see that they're only going to make many of the social problems we're dealing with much much worse.

[jdcarter]

There are a shocking number of older tech companies around Boulder (say 10+ years old) that haven't gotten the memo about the market value of engineers. They've somehow gotten away with paying engineers $80k/yr, and now they can't even hire a new grad for that.

I've certainly had several hiring discussions that were going great until we hit salary. I make good money but nowhere near crazy money, yet these hiring managers weren't even in the same ballpark.