Ask HN: Do you know other firms like Valve or GitHub?
Not sure if it's in the same bucket as Valve or GitHub: at Mobile Jazz <a href="http://mobilejazz.com" rel="nofollow">http://mobilejazz.com</a> we're only 20 people (and that makes things a lot easier), but we've quite a different way of working compared to traditional companies:<p>* We pay fair salaries. For most people in our team it's way more than what they've earned before.<p>* We pay everyone the same (base) salary. Regardless of their role or title.<p>* We pay quarterly bonuses based on pro-activity, responsibility and other performance indicators.<p>* Everyone can work from wherever they like, still many people choose to work from our main office in Barcelona. (For example I work many weeks out of my camper van with 3G/4G connection from beautiful surf locations)<p>* In theory, everyone can choose how much or how little they want. Not always possible, but we try to make it possible as much as we can.<p>* We have managers, but they don't demand things. They are responsible that certain things happen, but decisions are being made collaboratively.<p>* All managers are either engineers or designers. No bullshit managers.<p>* We don't have a dedicated sales person. All work we get is from word-of-mouth and the first person a new client speaks to is either an engineer or designer (or both).<p>* We play Mario Kart / StarCraft after lunch ;-)<p>* We do a lot of sports activities together<p>* We have a lot of BBQs on our terrace<p>* We use some of the profits for fun internal experiments 
(small projects without an expected outcome other than having fun & learning). However, some of them are now actually turning into actual products: <a href="http://bugfender.com/" rel="nofollow">http://bugfender.com/</a><p>* MJ University: we take online classes together as a group<p>* MJ Talk: weekly presentation about an interesting topic (not necessarily tech related). For example we had talks about personal finance (investing), achieving happiness, etc.<p>* We encourage pair programming where it makes sense<p>* MJ Weekend: once or twice every year we fly everyone to Spain, rent a nice villa with pool and have a good time together. Some pics: <a href="http://blog.mobilejazz.cat/work-life-balance-at-mobile-jazz/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.mobilejazz.cat/work-life-balance-at-mobile-jazz/</a><p>* MJ Retreats: we're going to remote places and work there together. At the moment six of us are on an island in Thailand. In February we go skiing in Austria.<p>* We put a lot of effort in hearing everyone's opinion and feedback and try to put it into action<p>With all that we've managed to attract and retain incredible talent, but most importantly we have a very pleasant time together.<p>That said, we're a company optimizing on lifestyle and happiness, rather than profit. So this way of running a business is probably not applicable everywhere.<p>(Edit: formatting, typos and a few additions)