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It is very interesting to me that the founders have agreed to pay people in very low-cost-of-living areas almost as much as people in San Francisco. I'm pretty sure USD$95k in South Africa, Croatia, or Italy beats the pants off $120k in SF lifestyle wise. I guess the founders have not traveled to these places or fine with overspending?

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The value the developer brings to the table does not fluctuate with the cost of living of the place he lives at. The profit that can be made in arbitraging CoL should mostly go to the developer, since he is the one who also has to bear the negative features of living in a low CoL place, which are often overlooked in a naive dollar-to-dollar comparison.

Looked at from the other side, it's a competitive process between employers and there's no reason why other companies wouldn't pay top dollar for a top developer. If Buffer didn't pay it, the developer would find another employer who would.

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