Question
My partner and I have been able to bootstrap the business so far and develop a fair amount of functionality. Hiring contractors, though, has prevented us from moving the product development along as quickly as we would have liked.
Hence the need for a full time developer that has some skin in the game. My thoughts are the following:
Salary of around $100K per year
Either performance based bonuses or vesting schedules to earn a modest amount of equity.
Goal: Incentivize the developer from working hard for us but ideally not looking to give away equity.
Answer
You can offer Salary + Equity. Draft an ESOP to keep the technical staff motivated.