In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.

So if you want a culture where people work hard, & pay attention to detail, focus on the customer, are frugal: you have to do it yourself.

As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.

Investors will sort of like write the check and then, despite a lot of promises, don't usually do that much; sometimes they do.

A third advantage of mission oriented companies, is that people outside the company are more willing to help you.

There are 3 things I look for when I hire people. Are they smart? Do they get things done? Do I want to spend a lot of time around them?

Even though plans themselves are worthless, the exercise of planning is very valuable and totally missing in most startups today.