Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
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Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#2Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there.
There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in half on a proposal. Nobody but me seemed to notice. So now I don't do that anymore.
As the article so nicely points put, the work you're doing is exactly the same regardless of where you do it from. Charge accordingly.
It's true that living costs are less in other places. It makes a lot more sense for that difference to be captured by me rather than somebody else's company.
Glad to see these guys stepping up and setting an example from the employer side.
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#3I'm not entirely sure of what to make of this. At the least, if more companies do this, may be the congestion in SF reduces and average wages go up in other places.
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#4> (And before you ask, sorry, we’re actually not hiring. That’s part of the restraint bit. We have a team of fifty five of the most kind, wonderful, and capable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. That’s all we need at the moment to do what we want to do.)
Refreshing!
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#5I've been using Basecamp since version 1, and in my opinion it became worse and more overpriced at every release.
I've recently signed up to see if I could use it for a team, and it was barely more useful than a piece of paper.
Obviously its success proves me wrong, but I don't get it.
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#6Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…
Jason, how much did you increase your rate by in percent?
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#7Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…
I've always wondered what kind of development work you can do with a laptop chilling at the beach...
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#8Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…
How much is your/the "Bay Area Rate"? Thinking about internationalization of my consultancy and have no real insight into hourly rates for devs in the US. Don't want to leave too much money on the table because I haven't done my research.
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#9Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…
Jason, how much did you increase your rate by in percent?
When I doubled it?
Think Google/Facebook total comp if you need a number to plug into your mental model. Software is a nice gig.
Re: Basecamp doesn’t employ anyone in SF, but now we pay everyone as though all did
#10Well done. Personally, as a remote developer, I always make a point of billing at my "Bay Area Rate", even though I've never lived there. There was a point, early in my guy-on-the-beach-with-a-laptop era where I would cut my bill rate in half while working from the beach with a laptop. Clients were happy about that, and it more than paid for beers and thatch huts. Then one time I tried not cutting my bill rate in hal…
Jason, how much did you increase your rate by in percent?
I guess 100% (doubling it), since he wrote that he was cutting it in half before