I upvoted you because this is a fairly good comment, though I think it is fundamentally incorrect.
Working really hard and acquiring technical debt isn't really an alternative to hiring and compensating employees, it's (usually) a prerequisite. A single technical cofounder can be enough to get a company to Series A, but at some point you have to hire people.
If we wanted to discuss an actual alternative, it would be to hire people in other locations at far lower rates than those commanded in SV. But that comes with its own set of problems.
Working really hard and acquiring technical debt isn't really an alternative to hiring and compensating employees, it's (usually) a prerequisite. A single technical cofounder can be enough to get a company to Series A, but at some point you have to hire people.
If we wanted to discuss an actual alternative, it would be to hire people in other locations at far lower rates than those commanded in SV. But that comes with its own set of problems.