[vladd]

Being a good manager in the startup field is an extraordinary difficult thing to do.

Here's an awesome TED talk that you can watch which is a good introduction in the field - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html - it shows that performance in creative fields can decrease when the payout is greater.

Salary is just one factor in job satisfaction, there are lots of other ways, most of them cheaper from a costs perspective, which can improve the "mood". Here's a list:

  - equity
  - 20% time (autonomy to work on self-driven projects)
  - a perceived notion of fairness (i.e. no bozos as managers,
  promotions done right on merit and payout/hierarchy that
  correlates with the actual job performance, not politics)
  - free drinks/food/catering (or at least joint cafeteria area
  for lunch bonding/discussions)
  - awesome hardware
  - high employee/manager ratio to avoid micro-management
  - a tech ladder allowing growth without becoming a manager