[PhilWright]

Sell the developer on the chance to use the latest technology.

Sell the developer on the chance for career growth as the company grows.

Sell the developer on the fast paced environment without all the meetings and bureaucracy of larger companies.

Sell the developer on the chance to work broadly across many projects and not be stuck doing the same specialism all the time.

Sell the developer on being a big fish in a small pond and not just another numbered resource.

Your selling the culture and environment.

[partisan]

Having had an unsexy startup, all of the above helped to attract good talent. As developers ourselves, we were attracted to an environment like the one you describe and so we created a company that we would want to work in. We had no turnover for several years as a result.