[jacquesm]

> The direct reason that this doesn't work outside silicon valley is that outside silicon valley you, will1000, will not work for me for equity and no salary. That is only possible in Silicon Valley.

Right, because only in Silicon Valley will people work for equity and no salary. They live off the air.

Explain to me how talented coder 'x' (whoever, maybe will1000) will be able to live without any compensation whatsoever during 18 months.

Even in SV that's an exception, not a rule, and even in SV people need to eat. So the more commonly employed scenario is that there is a bit of funding which is made to stretch as far as it will go by compensating key employees with equity rather than salary for some portion of their total package.

0 salary and just equity is an exception.

[logicallee]

The portion you refer to is pocket change - it would not retain these employees outside Silicon Valley, where such caliber of employees are willing to give great weight to equity.

Read http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127882/Meet-OTHER-n... and it becomes clear that the 18 employees were recruited mostly with equity.

Hiring the quality of talent that we're talking about, in will1000's market, just doesn't happen using the kind of equity (e.g. 10% pool) that instagram was using, without enough cash in the bank to pay a large base salary to each of those extremely talented people.

Outside silicon valley that's what you would need to do something like this: a whole ton of cash, or lower your standard of employee. Only in Silicon Valley can equity be used for this kind of bargaining power, to retain 18 people who are of such a quality that they are able 36-handedly to build a company in 18 months that is worth $1Billion.

As a simple example: I could never get you to work for me part-time for $0 and 30% equity in our company: except in silicon valley, where I could do so extremely easily, just by showing a product that is near completion.

It's your fault. You're the one who doesn't want the riches and results. You're the one who doesn't want to change the future, by working for next to free for it, and having just equity.

There's a reason a couple of kids in silicon valley can build multibillion dollar companies while on a ramen diet, and you can't.

you (and the market you're in) just doesn't want to.

[jacquesm]

> The portion you refer to is pocket change.

You're currently running a company with in excess of 18 talented engineers without a viable income stream?

And your payroll is 'pocket change'?

> Hiring the quality of talent that we're talking about, in will1000's market, just doesn't happen with the kind of equity (e.g. 10% pool) that instagram was using - outside of silicon valley that is.

Of course it does.

You make some outrageous statement, then fail to back it up, next you make a new outrageous statement which is even further from the truth.

[logicallee]

I'm a bit confused, we might have misunderstood each other.

There's nothing to "back up" - I said that the most talented employees in the world, who can build a $1B company up in 18 months, will not do so outside Silicon Valley in exchange for a 10% employee equity pool, and a low base salary.

Outside Silicon Valley they would only do so for a very high base salary.

[dasil003]

Are you a foreign national who can't move to the valley? Because you certainly have an extremely distorted view of reality. People are not being hired with pure equity with the ease you seem to think. Also, I might add as the co-founder of a growing startup with offices in both Palo Alto and London, salaries are higher and competition for employees stiffer in the valley.

[logicallee]

Let me put it to you this way. Can you hire a talented CEO in London within the next month, who will work for you for below half the median wage in London and be able to build a company with you and a cofounder that is worth $10M within a year?

In the valley, this is easy. You do have to give up equity though.

In London, the above will get you shown the door, with a grin. Haha, good luck.

[dasil003]

I'll ignore the fact that hiring a CEO is something that startups pretty much do not do and ask you this: why do you think it's so easy to hire top talent on primarily equity?

[mcintyre1994]

You are an incredibly lucky person if living for 18 months with no salary is plausible for you. Either that or you've already worked somewhere for a large salary. You shouldn't talk down to people because they haven't experienced the same luck as you. Instagram was an exception to just about every rule, and I don't think it's a bad thing that a majority of the world would laugh at anybody trying to sell them the idea of work in it for equity.

[temphn]

  Explain to me how talented coder 'x' (whoever, maybe 
  will1000) will be able to live without any compensation 
  whatsoever during 18 months.

Savings? Perhaps if Bitcoin rises and deflation becomes the norm, it will become more common to have 18 months of savings before quitting your job.