> Make the culture of your company so awesome that people will want to stay, even if you can't pay the most. Make mentoring/growth a central strategy at every level so people will see a path to grow.

This is why company culture is so important. You may not be able to compete on financial compensation right away, but if you have a culture thats great, enables people to learn and grow and work with other great folks, its very attractive as compared to simply throwing more money.

Not to mention: many folks _want_ that kind of mentorship and culture. They desperately want to learn from smart, experienced developers.