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.
- 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.