We're going to hire a crapload of people to hack for us and sell for us.
curious what others think is 150k/yr per fte (sallry, taxes, benifits, equipment, office) high or low
This seems very low to me.
Let's assume 3 employees at your rather low rate. That's: 3 x $70k = $210k.
So all you money is now gone.
With no money left how are you going to pay the rent, pay for equiment, pay for any other day to day business expenses (i.e. phone, electricity, insurance, taxes etc).
I'd say $200k is even too low for 2 employees (in any western country).
In reality, he's not paying the employees a year's salary upfront, so at this point all he really needs to have in cash is the first couple months' salary.
Imagine that he's going off 6 months, at which point he would reassess the financial situation (whether he needs to raise more money, lay off, or is now making enough profits to pay for the team.)
Just a thought…