Its all about “getting the right people on the bus” right? If theres one thing I’ve learned about 2+ years of being a Entrepreneur/Chief Slave Driver its that you’ve got to give your employees incentives to do good work. Sounds simple enough. But it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do when you are a startup and cannot match the salaries of companies that are 3X your size. So what do you do?

You evangelize the shit out of your company vision. For us it is “reforming health care through information technology”. If your company has a cause-based vision, it is much easier to make meaning of the work that you do because at the end of the day you feel that youve done work that has contributed to society in a meaningful way. If you get too far away from your cause, it definitely dampens morale and thats when companies start enforcing those complicated compensation schemes to use money as a the primary driver for good work. In my experience, I’ve found that recognition, a sense of accountability, and learning opportunities are the most effective means of recruiting A-players.