If you glance at the page that Auren Hoffman links to, you'll see that he defines his "A players" in the classic "Rock Star" fashion - they won't work with anyone but other "A-Players", they'll leave if you hire other types, etc. You can follow the link I provide for this.

Sure, people perform differently in different job and people who perform well should be hired. Even then, the "only A-players" thing is dubious - even in a super bowl team, some people are supporting players and good "stars" respect their support and* a variety of talents is useful even in software creation.

It's pretty obvious that venture capitalist Hoffman using his "Rock stars" rhetoric to pump up Rapleaf as "another Google". "Truly outstanding people" is not a particularly well articulated criteria for hiring but it sure appeals to the plebs and the marketers. It's unfortunate, because your management philosophy shouldn't be a "look at how great I am" tool. If you really need to get people to look at you, there are other ways to do it.