[johnhess]

I love this very honest appraisal of how pay-for-performance incentives ought to work, and I wish more companies would step back and ask themselves if their "traditional" incentive structures have the motivational factor they're "traditionally" assumed to have.

While startup performance is less correlated to market performance than an established firm, the concept of setting the bar as outperforming the industry/market is brilliant, and I wonder if there's a good analog in the startup space, particularly for employees.

Bonuses and stock options are all well and good, but they incentivize the firm's survival and success. A single employee may be unable to change that, even if they perform exceptionally. Those incentives are great for "share the wealth" and "all for one, one for all" camaraderie, but they don't incentivize individual performance.