business · 2026-05-01
Project monthly burn and runway impact of adding N hires by role and role-mix — fully-loaded cost including burden + tools.
| Engineer hires | 3 |
| Avg engineer salary | $165,000 |
| Sales hires (incl quotas) | 2 |
| Avg sales OTE | $200,000 |
| Ops/G&A hires | 1 |
| Avg ops salary | $110,000 |
| Burden rate % | 30% |
| Current monthly burn | $800,000 |
| Current cash | $12,000,000 |
| New monthly burn | $908,875 |
| Monthly burn increase | $108,875 |
| Old runway (months) | 15.0 |
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.
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.
3 engineers ($165k) + 2 sales ($200k OTE) + 1 ops ($110k) at 30% burden:
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.
US tech companies: 28-35% on cash compensation alone (FICA, FUTA, SUI, health, dental, 401k match). Add 5-10% for workspace + tools when relevant. Don't include SBC (stock) in burden — that's a separate line item below. Total fully-loaded multiplier: ~1.3 to 1.5× base.
If you use external recruiters: yes, amortized over hire's expected tenure. 20% recruiting fee on $165k engineer = $33k. Amortized over 24-month avg tenure = $1,375/mo extra burden. For internal-only sourcing: zero.
Don't approve hires that put runway under 12 months. The next fundraise typically needs 9-12 months: 4-6 months of pipeline-building, 3-4 months of close, 1-2 months of paperwork. Hiring into a sub-12-month runway means hiring without a confirmed bridge.