I think we all agree startups should innovate a lot on their core product where it can be a useful differentiator. I think this goes far beyond "business model

I think we all agree startups should innovate a lot on their core product where it can be a useful differentiator. I think this goes far beyond "business model" -- things like which programming language to use for the core product are good things to innovate on. Using untested/unpopular technologies like Linux, functional languages (well, really just interpreted languages, functional was still a small subset), Apache, etc. became useful advantages for some companies in ~2000. Using the cloud in 2008-2010, or adopting social and then mobile from 2008-2012. Not sure what it is today (I'd like to think it's hostproof/security-from-NSA, but that's probably not it for most businesses.) I hope we all agree startups have finite resources and shouldn't try to innovate (or really even spend much time on) the really mundane things which don't matter to that particular startup. Legal paperwork, trash disposal, etc. It's an interesting question which things are in the middle, and how much innovation/experimentation is reasonable there. Hiring is clearly core, so things around hiring might be more legitimate grounds for experimentation than others. I don't think cash compensation is the pain point for most of that, though -- how people pick projects, how people are recruited, etc.