[erikpukinskis]

> How do you compensate the people making internal tooling for example?

You need to place them in your business model.

What are the tools used for? What would happen if the tooling didn’t get built and your colleagues used off the shelf tools?

That will tell you how much your team is worth.

Most people seem to throw up their hands at this point and say “it’s hard, and imperfect” and they stop working on the business model.

But any model is imperfect. Even the sales person you mentioned, who earns a flat commission on sales... they could be costing the company more than they’re bringing in, if their sales are forcing developers into crunch, or if their customers churn, etc. The point of the model is not to mirror reality perfectly, it’s to give you numbers that can guide your negotiations, as I said.

Just because it’s unusual to think about how developers fit into your business model doesn’t mean it’s impossible or it shouldn’t be done.