One word of caution would be that a lot of the numbers we see for seed financing apply to companies that have gone through high-profile accelerators like YC, or that have founders who have previously made money for investors.
The bigger concern is that if you hire, the profitability number you need to hit can change radically. Raising to hire is a very easy way to put your company on a funding treadmill.
The funding example I gave was for a non-incubated startup. But it is my n=1, so not totally sure that is out there.
100% agree on the hire and funding treadmill. I would only take funding if it is reasonably sustainable. If I would end up hiring 2 people and in 6 months we have had less than projected growth, I would lay them off to keep the company alive. Sucks for the hires, but part of the risk of startups I think. I would not hire 14 people that I need funding to employ.
This is totally a valid thing you should bring up in an interview though. I would pass over you, but I can totally see many others agreeing with you.
And he's saying the alternative in this scenario is "cofounder", in which the would-be employee takes on a job that may disappear and is compensated for that fact by getting significant equity in the company.
If you want a really safe job for 20 years you would join the government or a fortune 100 type company. Does the 2nd and 3rd employee ever think his job is as secure as working for a fortune 100?
Either way, I think you're going to find that outside funding on the scale you're contemplating is much less magical than you think it is. It's going to be harder to close than you think, and it's going to do less for your business --- at least, if you really do mean to do all the things you need to do to stay off the funding treadmill!
There's no reason you can't get on the funding treadmill and sell enough of your company to get a "runway" to the next round of funding. Lots of successful businesses are built that way. It's harder, however, to think of bootstrapped businesses that have leveraged small seed rounds tactically the way you're thinking of.
You may also find that it's difficult to raise funding when one of your "use of proceeds" bullets is "enables me to quit full time job". People who invest in startups are largely driven by signals, and a pretty important one is "founder believes in the business enough to have dedicated themselves to it full time for some time".
Unless you have pretty exceptional circumstances, I think you're also pretty optimistic in assuming that a few hundred thousand dollars will only cost you a few % of your company.