From the very beginning, Maxwell Health CEO and co-founder Veer Gidwaney intended to revolutionize the health and benefits industry with dazzling technology that simplified the complexity of HR tasks, particularly for startups and small companies. However, if he's successful, it just might be the old-fashioned way: with customer service.

"Every time I call them, I get a response," said Danny Shachar, director of operations for Manhattan-based Compstak, a startup that compiles hard-to-get real estate information. "Sometimes in minutes."

Three thousand miles away in San Francisco, Entelo office manager Laura Levinsohn echoes the sentiment. "I usually have a lot of questions about benefits and HR, "she said, "and they've been very patient with me. A couple of times I've even had to call them on a Saturday. Someone always gets back to me right away. They've been great." Entelo is a startup that provides job recruiters with a database of software engineers and designers.