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This will changes as reputation of the shop changes. You can't expect a company to fork over that kind of money only to have nothing done.

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Then, wouldn't 2-3K of guaranteed work be better than a lure of 7-8K? If you are looking at top-notch devs who can code and execute an idea from scratch, that's not a bad deal at all.

I don't think 2k-3k will cover the costs for the dev. Just to humor you with the breakdown:

- Friday night: Plan and agree on approach

- Saturday morning to Sunday night: hack

- 4-5hrs sleep/night + breaks and tomfoolery

Maybe getting 35 hours of actual solid work comes out to $200-$228/hr. $2k-3k would be way too low esp. after taxes unless there is a way to skirt the IRS.

Al Capone advises that you don't "skirt the IRS".

Some reason I can't edit my own comment, but even $200/hr is low. I used to work in economic consulting and I only have a BA in economics. My company charged the clients $400/hr for my services. Good lawyers charge $1,000/hr, why shouldn't good hackers make $400k-$500k/year just in salary? Fuck stock options, that's just the cherry on top. I've been reading that a good dev makes 125k to 150k, I think that's cute, but devs are still under valued in this market. Let's do something about it.

Lawyers have systemic and geographical barriers to competition.

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