Sounds like you have had an fascinating career. I dunno, but maybe the world need two types of engineers; ones motivated by good code and ones motivated by money.

I wonder though if you can develop a superb product and company with just money alone. In a way you probably need evangelists rather than just hired guns.

In my experience as a product manager, the evangelists are much more creative than the hired guns. You can throw lots of money toward the development of a product but that doesn’t mean you’ll get innovative solutions from your team.

You need a mix of believers as well as hired guns.