Why This CEO Pays Staff $18,000 a Year to Live Near the Office

Sebastian Jimenez, the CEO of Rilla, pays each employee $18,000 a year to live near the office. The AI startup, based in New York City, spends $37,000 in total perks per worker, including that housing stipend.

The logic is straightforward. Jimenez wants his team close enough to walk or bike to work. A short commute means more time for collaboration and less turnover, he said in an interview. For a startup competing for AI talent against giants like Google and OpenAI, the stipend is a differentiator.

Rilla builds speech-recognition software for businesses. The company has around 50 employees, Jimenez said. At that headcount, the annual perks bill runs roughly $1.85 million. That is a meaningful chunk of a startup's burn rate. Jimenez argues it pays for itself in retention and productivity.

The housing stipend is not a loan or a relocation bonus. It is recurring cash paid directly to employees who live within a certain radius of the office. Jimenez did not disclose the exact radius or the total number of employees who take the stipend.

Other perks include free lunch, gym memberships, and unlimited vacation. Jimenez said the package is designed to remove friction from daily life so engineers can focus on product development.

The strategy carries risks. If Rilla needs to cut costs during a downturn, the perks line is harder to trim than salary. The stipend only works if the office remains the hub. Remote-first startups would not need it.

Jimenez said the model is working. Rilla's attrition rate is below the industry average for AI startups, he said. The company is hiring and plans to expand the office space later this year.