Startup Exercise: What can't be solved with money? (2011)
11 comments
·April 18, 2025ltbarcly3
Product intuition, engineering talent, really talent of any kind, motivation, alignment, like nothing important can be solved with money.
mcmcmc
All the things you listed can be solved with sufficient payroll and recruiting budget.
ltbarcly3
You can hire as many people as you want, but you can't hire talent with money, just people who claim to have talent. No amount of money makes you able to tell the difference. If you don't believe me you really should never try to start a business.
mcmcmc
Enough payroll lets you hire and fire fast until you have the right people. More money means you have to worry less about sunk costs from bad hires that make it through the recruiting process.
bryanlarsen
No references ATM, but I believe studies show that the correlation between money and motivation is very large up until you reach the point an employee considers it a fair wage. After that point, the correlation is small.
Of course, what the employee considers a fair wage and what the employer considers a fair wage can diverge significantly.
RhysU
Fun. I can imagine motivation-money curves would look a lot like stress-strain curves [1]. A "fair wage" might be akin to the yield strength. Work hardening under cyclic loading probably is similar.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress%E2%80%93strain_curve
ltbarcly3
At a startup you are paid primarily via stock options, so if you can't get motivated for the potential millions and millions of dollars they will be worth no amount of cash is going to do it.
mooreds
I mean, engineers and other talent need to eat, right? So some level of money is important to be able to recruit people.
But other than that, agree that motivation is not something you can buy.
ltbarcly3
You can pay charlatans just as much as you can talented engineers, and telling the difference requires a lot of ability.
I think a lot of this advice is valid for applying for research grants as well. Like it would be nice if someone showered me with money to explore my ideas without limit. But actually forcing yourself to describe which parts grant money will solve and which parts are limitations introduced by you and the team you are assembling to explore the problem is sage advice.