Starting a Tech Business: A Practical Guide for Anyone Creating or Designing Applications or Software

Motivation

How do you motivate these teams and get them to feel the same way about the project that you do? That's hard. The idea was not theirs, at least the initial concept, and they don't have nearly the upside that you do. You can give them ownership, and that is the most consistent recipe for increasing performance. First, developers care more about their deliverables when they have a discrete, identifiable patch of grass, so to speak, that's their own. Giving the employees ownership means investing them with confidence and trust, giving them basic direction, minimal supervision, and giving them the latitude to accomplish their objectives. Second, you want to avoid overreliance on equity. Overreliance on equity is a no-win situation: Employees will wonder if their equity will be worth something, or they will walk once they can cash in the equity. A bonus structure with a portion going to a retention bonus is the best way to align reward and retention.