Ask HN: Other than cash, how do you compensate employees in your startup?

Our company (bootstrapped) has grown very quickly in the past few months. As we contemplate our next moves, we need to decide between investing in hard assets (machinery, IP) and paying employees for project-based work related to the development of these assets. These assets will provide us with a protected competitive position in our industry. We aren't really looking for outside investors, and an exit down the road is highly unlikely, so equity compensation for employees isn't ideal. What other forms of employee compensation have founders on here used? Ideally, some sort of rolling-debt instrument would fit our needs, but everything I've read online says that's a bad idea (and possibly illegal). Does anyone have any other suggestions?