When Devs Bring Up Money

Every startup founder's nightmare: your dev mentions they scored a $50k development grant and suddenly expects a raise. Meanwhile, the company bank account is running on fumes and prayer. That $50k? Already allocated to AWS bills, three years of technical debt, and that "quick refactor" that turned into rebuilding the entire architecture.

The gap between "we got funding" and "we have money to pay people" is where most tech companies live permanently. Sure, we raised money, but have you SEEN our burn rate? That grant disappeared faster than a junior dev's confidence after their first production deploy.

Three dollars is honestly generous. Most startups are operating on equity promises and free La Croix.