I find your mission interesting, but I was turned off by the fact that you're a Canadian company with ~3 people. I wish I could set a reminder to ping you in like 3 or 4 years. :( Best of luck!
I live in the US, specifically the Bay Area. Based on past experience, it’s unlikely Mixnode could pay me a salary anywhere close to what I could earn here, even after factoring in cost of living. Emigrating is also not practical, even if getting a visa wasn’t a problem.
Oakland costs 15% more, but it’s unlikely this company is going to pay me ~85% of what I make here if I emigrated (and, even if they do, I have a significant amount of student loans as fixed costs). As a remote employee, I’d need ~100% of what I’d make around here, and that would come with significant tax headaches for them.
As a Canadian who moved to the Bay area, this is true. Finding a Canadian company that is going to be competitive with Bay area salaries is almost impossible even if their revenue is in USD.
Even large US companies generally require internal transfer to Canada to take a pay cut in addition to changing to Canadian dollars.
To make it worse, Vancouver has a high cost of living but low salaries.
If you are remote, you don't need to be in the bay area. While a harsh reality, the bay area is a crazy expensive place to live, and I would say do so if you have to, not because you want to. And if you do want to, work where it makes sense.
Actually, I do need to be in the Bay Area for personal, professional, and health reasons. But, yes, I take your point. I could certainly live on 3/4 or 2/3 of a Bay Area salary in the middle of nowhere, if I wanted to.