$10,000 per employee per month

The $10,000 per month per employee budget rule has been so accurate for us.
— Danielle Morrill (@DanielleMorrill) July 26, 2014

Estimating a business expenses for a startup is hard. I have long used the back of the envelope rule of thumb that our expenses are roughly $10,000 per employee per month. So it was interesting to see the tweet above from Danielle last week.

Of course this is just a rule of thumb. Different businesses have different variations on the number. For example, a fast food business is not the same. But in general for tech software startups, to support 10 people in a self-funded startup, you need to be doing over $1 million in revenue.

What are your thoughts on this rule of thumb?