Ask HN: How to compensate employees when there's little or no cash?

I really doubt, if anybody would join when there is no budget for salaries, unless you can offer them a partnership and they actually believe in the probability of success of the idea.

And unless you alrady know them well, it would be tough to either convince them of the probability of success or keep the idea protected till they sign up or both.

But then, everything is possible, you just have to figure out how.

Cheers

They would just not be "employees"; more like founders or associates, with a significant equity (eg: not 1%).

Yes they would be founders/associates—not employees. I would really like to know what a reasonable amount of equity would be.

I think you have to ask yourself the difficult question: if VCs and angels with lots of money to spend aren't willing to fund it, why would developers etc fund it with their time?

If you don't have any cash, you can't have employees :) Find some co-founders!