I am not involved in any browser development, so count me as an outsider. Considering what browsers we have available and taking their estimated development costs into account (not to the point we are at now, but at their release), $9.5M seems like a hobby project at best. What am I missing? And is aiming for a sellout to competitors already a business model in a way that you openly advertise it?
$9.5M one time is too little, but you could def get by with funding a competitive Firefox-level product on a budget of $25–30M annually if you ran lean enough and (counter-intuitively) paid high programmer salaries. Pay slightly higher than experienced Googlers make and move the business out of the Bay Area.
