In reality this is a qualitative metric. If you can produce value as quick as our CTO Shevek then we will have no issue paying you at the top of the range.

As a bootstrapped company (9 employees in 6 countries, no two of us have the same nationality) - we pay a reasonable base and pay a significant year end bonus that is influenced by your work during the year, our profitability and where you live.

No doubt this is not a satisfying answer, but as a small company we have great flexibility to structure packages to meet each team member's requirements.

Honestly, I would worry that the idea of a compensation package based mostly around bonuses just leads to a massive amount of infighting and politicking and other nastiness from people jockeying for an extra 20k. If I get stuck doing some bug fixes and refactoring for a couple months am I going to lose out to the person who launched 2 new features?

Not trying to be a jerk about it, but as a potential applicant that is my concern. d