This Startup Is Giving Businesses a Better Way to Offer Employee Perks AnyPerk aims to 'enable happiness' through a variety of incentives.

Forget the balance sheet. According to Taro Fukuyama, the key to a successful company is a happy work force. And what makes people happy is a culture that recognizes them for being part of a team.

This is the guiding concept behind AnyPerk, the company Fukuyama founded in 2013 with buddy Sunny Tsang. San Francisco-based AnyPerk offers HR departments a program through which they can incentivize employees with preferred pricing on hundreds of products and services nationwide. The perks, such as discounted gym memberships, restaurant and travel deals, clothing and free movie tickets, don't expire and can recur monthly.

As Fukuyama sees it, the more appreciated an employee feels, the more likely they are to stay at their job. "Most of the time when people are feeling disengaged, it's because they feel their manager or the company doesn't appreciate them," Fukuyama says. "Big companies like the Googles and IBMs of the world can negotiate deals and discounts directly with vendors. We provide a valuable service—and economy of scale—for everyone else."