For a start, which is designed to help employers address this issue, and Adobe developers Zynga stopped working.

Last October, Zao Yang resigned from the company Zynga, which publishes games for social networks, despite the fact that I could get there the option. He preferred to do a difficult task – to help small businesses retain talented employees. “I wanted to get to the point and eager to fight,” – says the 28-year-old Yang. Once it is already possible – before Ian was developing computer games, including FarmVille, acquired by Zynga in 2009. Then he brought the game Zynga founder Mark Pincus billions.

How can you “get to the point”, working with small businesses? On the decision to part with Ian employer influenced Paige Craig, a defense contractor, with whom he met over a glass of tequila at the event VC firm Redpoint Ventures. I had the idea of combining technology and social media to manage motivational programs. Within two weeks, Jan versed in the details of the idea, and eventually moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to Craig. At the same time, to join a startup and guest Craig, George Ishii, a former programmer Abobe, one of the first employees of PayPal and founder of Geni (service to create a family tree) and Yammer (social network for office workers).

They drafted BetterWorks, company that creates incentive programs for employees. These programs combine the benefit Groupon, gear recommendations, and a simple interface Amazon.com and socialization of Facebook. The company has already found investors who are confident in the success of not less developer-startaparov. Redpoint has invested in a young company $ 8 million

What is the business idea? Small firms that do not have a large staff of cadres and big budgets do not have a program of employee motivation. These programs are difficult to implement, and there is nobody to do it. “They have a health insurance program for payroll, but no single motivational system – said Ishii. – This brings us to our idea. ”

With BetterWorks employers can in a few clicks transfer to the employee’s money that he can spend on various services. There are hundreds of them – from dry land to the delivery, and they are available at a discount of 10% to 70%. The program gives a reminder, if the company is ordered pizza for the entire office or scheduled bowling (with the obligatory discount) for the management team. Software analyzes the behavior of the staff, to offer the most suitable recommendations, using the settings manager may adjust bonuses under the real situation – for example, to throw $ 25 at lunch delayed on employee performance.

BetterWorks Company enters into contracts with suppliers, develops interface, invoice and makes deliveries. They already have more than 130 clients, small businesses in Los Angeles and San Francisco, that covers the company’s subscription-based monthly service cost ranges from $ 30 to $ 500. One employee is on average $ 66 per month, but there are exceptions: in one of the firms established at the cost of $ 900 per employee. According to John Foster, senior vice president of talent and the first video portal Hulu client BetterWorks, money – not the only way to motivate. “Regular motivational encouragement great help to create a system of corporate values,” – he said.

Revenue BetterWorks are modest percentage of each transaction. Participation of suppliers in the project – and there were already 2200 – free of charge. The plans of the founders – the expansion of business in the 20 cities that will almost certainly require a significant effort in sales and advertising. “We are ready to work a couple of months without profit, in order to prove that our platform – a really great thing,” – says Craig.