Rapid developments in commercial and industrial internet, IT software and hardware have allowed the major growth of startup companies worldwide. In addition, the rapidly developing venture capital and accelerator practices are making a notable contribution to the so called startup hype. There is a growing interest towards startups among the global skilled workforce and almost every major university across the world has developed some kind of entrepreneurship program or community. In entrepreneurship literature much has been studied concerning the founding of companies and especially the founders. However, the non-founding employees of startups, who are the actual creators of growth, have been left aside.This thesis focused on the work motivation of the employees, who join startups after their founding. The self-determination theory by Deci and Ryan (1999), which defines psychological need satisfaction as the main promoter of motivation, was used as the theoretical framework for motivation study. In addition to needs, the reward and feedback practices were also studied.Research was based on qualitative methodology and the case study method was used. The founders and employees of three software startups in Finland were interviewed. The main method for data collection was the theme interview and a total of 20 interviews formed the empirical evidence of this research.The data analysis provided a collection of generalized statements related to each psychological need, rewards and feedback. Also a selection of direct quotes could be used to deepen the picture of the results. A unique version of the startup lifecycle was defined by combining theory and empirical evidence. This framework was used to assess changes in perceive need satisfaction.The psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness were perceived to be satisfied well in the case companies. The overall motivation was extrinsic with a highly internalized regulation. In other words, the behavior and culture of the companies was understood, valued and integrated into the self of employees. This type of motivation comes very close to intrinsic motivation, which is considered having the greatest positive effect on work performance. The initial growth phase (as pictured in Figure 1) was the first and most significant point of changes to perceived need satisfaction along the startup lifecycle.
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