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Comment by mikenyc | Hacker News Reader

Point taken. But in our case, we're bringing on our first lead engineer. This person will create our engineering culture and be the one who decides how these processes will play out. So the opportunity here is to shape our engineering team, including how developers will work together.

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How about saying just that then? If you want the person to create a culture, then giving them a $2.5k budget sends the wrong message there too, as to how much leeway they have. I don't think this will attract the right kind of candidate. Just my $.02

Ok, so the $2500 is the budget for the developer's machine. A more important question is: who owns the machine, the developer or the company?

If it is the former, I see no reason to complain.

I've yet to see a startup or any company for that matter that signs over ownership of assets bought with company funds to rank and file employees.

While I disagree with the tone and tenor of wolframarnold on most of it, I do agree that the amount is a little low. I personally think it should be at least $4500 or so, but I could get by with $3500 if I needed to, but then you'd be on the hook to pick up software afterward (Photoshop isn't cheap, etc.)

Also, outworlder's point is germane. The term "tech stipend" leads me to believe that you're going to give me $2500 to pick up my own stuff, that I would then own. If that's the case, it changes the equation a little better, because I already personally own three larger monitors that I'd be happy to drag to the office if that was the expectation.

Regardless, I thought the job posting was MUCH better than 'cute'. I think I've officially ruled out working in NYC, but this offer is tempting, if only for the coffee. Still though, it's very tempting. If the platform choice weren't Ruby, I'd be all over it.

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