Headcount burn budget calculator

Hiring is the biggest startup decision

Before approving a hire, founders need to know: what does this do to runway? The biggest mistake is approving 10 hires individually — each "small" — and waking up 6 months later with 18 months of runway turned into 9.

The fully-loaded cost

fully loaded = base salary × (1 + burden rate)

Burden = taxes + benefits + workspace + tools. Realistic burden rate: 25-35% in US for cash benefits, higher when including stock-based comp burn.

Default scenario impact

3 engineers ($165k) + 2 sales ($200k OTE) + 1 ops ($110k) at 30% burden:

• Annual cost: $1.43M
• Monthly burn increase: $119k
• Old runway (15 months at $800k burn) → new runway 13 months at $919k burn
• Lost 2 months runway

The math founders forget

• Sales reps don't pay for themselves immediately: 6-12 month ramp before quota attainment + lifetime value covers cost.
• Engineering hires increase coordination overhead: 10-engineer team isn't 5 + 5 productivity — it's ~7 effective due to communication tax.
• Tools + software per head: $200-500/mo per employee for software stack alone (GitHub, Slack, Linear, Notion, Figma).

The breakeven analysis

For each new hire, ask: when does this hire's contribution exceed their cost? Engineers building revenue features: ~6 months. Sales reps with quota: 9-15 months. Ops/G&A: never directly (overhead). Approve only if breakeven < runway − 6 months.