[kls]

Money and free Cheetos are great, but they come last

I disagree with this conventional wisdom and think it stems from wishful thinking on the part of hiring companies. With all things equal money becomes a secondary concern, but few developer are going to take significantly less for a position. Conversely if a company where to place an ad stating that they are paying 120% of the best market rate available, they would have quality developers lined up around the block. If money where the last concern then every developer would be working on their own problems, because they would find them far more interesting than what most companies have to offer. When I see this kind of advice, I cannot help but suspect the rest of the advice. More honest advice would be don't be cheap more than any other hire (with maybe the exception of sales) a good developer can earn his keep 10 fold, as such expect to compensate them well.

The other issue I see is there is no mention of finding remote developers. For the last few years I have assembled several all remote teams with members in Louisiana, Florida, NY, the valley, Australia and so on. With all the SaaS and Skype there is little need for a development team to be collocated. Finding talent is much easier when you are drawing on a global pool of talent. When we hire, we never hire based on compensation and always hire based on the best talent we can find wherever they are, unless their rate is astronomical we pay above market rate if they request it.