Entrepreneurs and the early startup team all need to be motivated by a shared vision, passion and desire to build a large company.\u00a0 Yet it\u2019s the company legends that live on. Our little startup was less than a year-old.\u00a0 We had been busy assembling our team and had just hired the last member of our exec staff.\u00a0 We had also just closed our Series B financing with a major overseas partner.\u00a0 The financing felt like a real validation of our strategy. In truth, it was only proof that our reality distortion field worked in Asia as well.<\/p>\n One of the new hires was Bob, my VP of Business Development.\u00a0 He knew so little about technology that I used to say he needed a manual to operate a light switch, but I hired him because a small voice said, \u201cHe\u2019ll do extraordinary things.\u201d<\/p>\n He did.\u00a0 And still does.<\/p>\n Bob, among other things ran the fundraising for us in Asia and worked with an outside firm that had great connections in Japan to drag us around Tokyo and get the deal closed.\u00a0 As in raising $10 million kind of closed.<\/p>\n Everyone at our startup was working on startup starvation salaries, and Bob had taken a large pay cut to join us. When the Japanese partner deal was done, Bob said,\u00a0 \u201cSteve, I deserve at least a $10,000 bonus.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been home in weeks, and I pulled off a financing even you admit was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n I patiently explained that this type of miraculous event was the norm for startups. The engineers were pulling off miracles on a daily basis, we were all taking fumes for salaries, but our payoff will be when our stock is worth something.\u00a0 Until then, tell your wife you\u2019ll get $10,000 when hell freezes over. No bonuses in a startup. To his credit Bob said while he understood, he was going to hear about it at home for not being appreciated.<\/p>\n Since our management team hadn\u2019t met each others\u2019 spouses, I thought the financing would be a great reason to get everyone together for a low key celebratory dinner.\u00a0 We picked a restaurant in Palo Alto down the street from the company and got a private room.<\/p>\n We drank lots of wine, had a nice dinner and after the dinner plates had been cleared I made a speech about teamwork, startup, passion, commitment, blah, blah.<\/p>\n I then congratulated the outside firm that Bob had used in Japan. I had invited their CEO and his wife and handed him a check for their retainer bonus for their help in the deal. Bob kept glancing at his wife who was giving him frosty looks and was very clearly not happy.<\/p>\n I then announced that it was unfair that Bob shouldn\u2019t go unrecognized for his hard work so I had an award for him as well. The atmosphere around Bob\u2019s wife began to thaw.\u00a0 I said, \u201cBob had carried the same old beat up leather briefcase he had since law school and I knew he wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything but I think its time he had something more professional looking.\u00a0 So Bob, on behalf of the company, we bought you a new briefcase.\u201d<\/p>\n The look on both Bob\u2019s face and his wife\u2019s went from happy to disbelief, to \u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2019re working for this idiot\u201d on his wife\u2019s face to \u201cI can\u2019t believe I work for this idiot\u201d on Bob\u2019s face.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cYour new briefcase is under the table by your feet.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t you just put it on the table.\u201d\u00a0 Bob rooted around a bit and found the briefcase and put it on the table. It was the ugliest and cheapest briefcase you will ever see.<\/p>\n Everyone was now looking slightly embarrassed, all thinking that perhaps they had the most obtuse CEO in Silicon Valley. I thought Bob\u2019s wife was going to throw a steak knife across the table.\u00a0 I made another speech about how great Bob was and then sat down and said, \u201cLets get the waiter for coffee and desert.\u201d<\/p>\n The ugly briefcase with its implicit statement sat on the table virtually steaming.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, one more thing,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cBob, can you open up the briefcase and dump the papers on the table. We should clear out the stuffing so you can put your papers from your old briefcase in it.\u201d<\/p>\n With almost an audible sigh, Bob unlatched the briefcase, held it upside down over the table and dumped out the contents.<\/p>\n In slow motion, dollar bills began to tumble out of the new briefcase.\u00a0 And they kept coming out.\u00a0 And they started making a pile of bills in front of Bob and his wife and the rest of the executive staff.<\/p>\n 15,000 dollars in dollar bills.<\/p>\n Bob\u2019s wife started crying.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cExtraordinary work in a startup is the norm, but you performed even beyond my expectations. In my startups, that\u2019s worth recognizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rewards for extraordinary effort became part of the company\u2019s legend.<\/p>\n Lest you think only salespeople are motivated by cash in a startup, over the life of the company we sprung the same surprise on engineers who did deliver the impossible. And at Christmas\u00a0we gave out hundred dollar bills to each employee. While this small token of appreciation would have been dismissed if it had been a check, it had our engineers showing these bills to their friends in other companies.<\/p>\n In three or so years these cash incentives added up to no more than $50K. While everyone understood the theory that we were working to make the stock valuable (and we did,) the cash reminded them that we cared and noticed.<\/p>\n Image by <\/em>xtoq<\/em><\/a> via Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.stoth.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/6c9b9_briefcase-300x225.jpg\")
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