What would you suggest startups to do, in order to hire the best people without burning so much cash?

Hiring great minds isn't that easy. The best idea for the startups for hiring really talented people is to offer them some share in the equity so that they can work on a nominal price that a startup can afford.

It will help the young business in a multiple ways including: minimal cash drainage, full involvement of the resource as he/she has a sense of ownership, low staff turnover to offer the ship a real sustainability  etc.