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"This article is part of DBA, a new series on Mashable that features insights from leaders in entrepreneurship, venture capital and management.\nYou're going to make mistakes when you're a first-time founder. It might be renting out office space that\u2019s too big (or too small), spending too much on holiday parties or hiring a sales team when your product isn't ready to be seen by the masses. But the biggest mistake I've seen founders make is being less than generous when it comes to investing in people.\nSee also: 10 Startups to Watch in 2014\nUnless you're in manufacturing, your highest investment is always going to be people \u2014 salaries, benefits, recruiting, company events, the list goes on. And since it\u2019s people who build and sell your product, and recruit others to do the same, you should heavily invest in their happiness and productivity. Instead of spending an exorbitant amount of money on office furniture, pull an Amazon.com (creating desks out of doors) and spend money where it matters \u2014 on the people sitting at those tables.\nIn-office caffeine drip for the team\nI\u2019m a proponent of expensive office coffee machines. That endorsement is often met with laughs, but consider the ROI of a $5,000 espresso machine. Without it, your team members will likely make at least one, if not multiple, trips to Starbucks or Blue Bottle throughout the day. They'll yawn through afternoon meetings and, to make it worse, they might groan about their coffee addiction all the while.\nAnd if you're more analytical, just do the math: If you have an employee that makes $100,000 a year or $50/hour ($65/hour \"fully loaded\"), that means a 15-minute Starbucks run will cost you $16 of lost productivity. If he or she\u2019s making that coffee run two times a day, that\u2019s $160 of lost productivity per week. So when it comes to keeping 10 engineers caffeinated, the $5,000 machine pays for itself in less than a month.\nIt\u2019s more than just that straight productivity. If it costs just a few thousand dollars to make your team happier and more present, then that Jura or De'Longhi machine \u2014 or many of them as you spread across multiple floors of a building \u2014 is a no-brainer.\nCompanies that eat together, stay together\nMany start-ups promote \"free lunch\" as an employee perk. Of course, the smartest ones have an agenda behind it \u2014 and as a recent blog post from Highfive noted, it\u2019s not just to make sure their employees are well-nourished or to to save a few bucks.\nDespite the open workspaces often synonymous with startups, teams inevitably become siloed. Facilitating regular opportunities for individuals that wouldn\u2019t normally come across each other to chat not only leads to more ideation, but also increased productivity. Plus, encouraging cross-department collaboration over meals forges relationships and networks across (what are often) rapidly growing teams \u2014 and cements a sense of community. As Kevin Kuske put it in an interview with Entrepreneur, \"In the world of a creative economy, work is better with trust. It\u2019s better with social bonds. When you\u2019re trying to build trust, creativity and relationships, you want to bring barriers down and get people to start acting more neutrally, and food is just a way to do that.\"\nYou can bet that at most companies with \"free lunch\" policies, taking the food back to your desk isn\u2019t an option.\nMonitors galore and comfy chairs for the individual\n\nErik Martin, general manager of Reddit, at work in the company's offices.Image:  RedditIn addition to investing in your team's happiness, successful companies also allocate capital for their individual employees\u2019 productivity. When a developer asks for three computer monitors so they can split their screens and code faster, you should say \"done\" and have them delivered tomorrow. If you hear your employees complaining about their comfort levels, start shopping for ergonomic chairs or standing desks.\nDon't be penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to your employees\u2019 comfort and consequent ability to get work done (or not). After all, the more productive your employees are, the better your products will be.\nRugby jerseys for the long haul\nWe give every new employee a rugby jersey featuring their employee number on the back as a first-day welcoming present. I like to think of those jerseys, wine and cheese Wednesdays, company-sponsored races and the photo booth at our third birthday party as investments in the long-term success of our company. As my co-founder Todd McKinnon has said, it takes a long time to build an important technology company. Your CFO might not immediately see the ROI of company events or ergonomic chairs, but by allocating capital to these outings (without going overboard), you\u2019re investing in your company\u2019s future with a team that cares about your vision and each other.\nFounders should never cut corners when it comes to investing in team members. When you\u2019re spending money fueling your team\u2019s coffee addictions or helping them avoid poor posture, remember that you're also funneling your capital directly to their productivity, happiness and future success at your company \u2014 and that\u2019s priceless."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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