Man, I'm genuinely tired of such mindset people
- You need engineers badly enough to spam their dms for days.
- You need engineers badly enough to spend 2 hours a day building your product.
- You need engineers badly enough to call them "founding engineers."
But when it comes to paying them, suddenly it's all about equity, mentorship, coaching, exposure, future upside, and whatever buzzword is trending this week.
"We'll train you."
"We'll coach you."
"We'll invest in you."
Cool, but who's investing in my rent, bills, and time?
What I don't get is how some people genuinely expect others to spend hours every week building their company for free and somehow think they're doing them a favor.
If the work is important enough that you need someone consistently contributing to the product, then the work is important enough to compensate.
Too many people try to dress up unpaid work with fancy titles and startup dreams.
At the end of the day, you're still asking someone to put in real work, take on real responsibilities, and carry the risk while you give them a "maybe it'll be worth something later."
Some founders need to hear this:
Asking people to consistently build your company for free isn't vision. It neither leadership nor entrepreneurship. And not your so called ethics.
It's just expecting other people to absorb the cost and risk of building your business while you keep the rewards on the table for yourself.
If your startup can't afford engineers, be honest about it. But don't dress unpaid work up as a once in a lifetime opportunity and act like you're doing people a favor.