[pedalpete]

I was speaking to a VC a few weeks ago about a start-up which is always pointing to how many employees they have, and I was asking "why is this a number they promote?" Why is it so important to them.

His response was that the number of employees they have is used to show government how much support they are putting into the ecosystem, how much the government earns in income tax from the employee base, how much money gets pumped into the local economy due to the thousands of employees they have. Demand for housing, transport, how it supports the local coffee shops and restaurants, etc etc. These figures are then used to get government grants. So in many ways, it's a form of free capital.

At the same time, it isn't like the company just hires anybody they can, and throws the money away, but I had a friend who worked there, and he said the work was kinda interesting, but they had sucked up so many amazing engineers, everyone felt like they were working under the level at which they'd be challenged.