In case you missed it, Dwolla, a new mobile phone payment service, became one of the hottest new startups recently when it landed an investment by Ashton Kutcher.

Kutcher has had a Midas touch when it comes to investments. Word of his participation has helped propel such startups as Foursquare, Airbnb, Zaarly, Chegg, Flipboard, and Skype to new heights, some to pre-IPO valuations in excess of $1 billion within a few years.

Kutcher has become such a powerhouse investor that there are tech blogs offering advice on ““how to get Ashton Kutcher to invest in your startup.”

Other celebrities, such as Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, and MC Hammer, are active startup investors. Most of them know very little about technology or business, but they have something much more valuable to bring to the equation: social media clout (or Klout).

The one thing every new product needs is awareness and credentials. Ashton Kutcher is a great investor because he brings with him 10.3 million Twitter followers and 12.3 million Facebook fans that trust his opinions on cool new products. An endorsement from the star can be worth millions in new revenue. It can also spark a flurry of free word-of-mouth advertising as the product or service gets shared.

Two years ago, online peer-to-peer apartment rental service Airbnb was ticking along at $8.4 million in revenue. Then in 2011, the company landed Kutcher as an investor, and revenue soared to $52.8 million as Kutcher recommended the service to his followers. Partly as a result of Kutcher’s presence and star power, the company raised $112 million in new funding last July at a $1.3 billion valuation.

Big corporations are also getting in on the action. Coca-Cola, which invested in Zico Coconut Water in 2009, brought in a half-dozen celebrities to co-invest in the business, including Kevin Garnett, Kelly Ripa, Alex Rodriguez, and model Gisele Bündchen. The celebs drove a fivefold increase in revenue in just one year, and Coke bought out 100 percent of the business, giving them all a handsome return.

As consumers stop watching TV and spend more time following friends and celebrities in social media, this may become the new product launch model. In fact, here are other celebs and the Twitter army they could put to work for a startup:

Lady Gaga (22.9 million followers)
Justin Bieber (20.2 million followers)
Britney Spears (15.6 million followers)
Kim Kardashian (14.4 million followers)
Oprah Winfrey (10.7 million followers)
Justin Timberlake (10.4 million followers)

On Friday, Eastman Kodak (EKDKQ) asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to pay out $13.5 million in “stay” bonuses to 300 of its top managers so they don’t quit during the reorganization. This latest request is a sure sign that the company simply doesn’t get it—and that any possible turnaround is doomed.

Saving Kodak will require radical change. Giving out bonuses to keep intact a management team that has already failed will make real change much more difficult. There are always key employees you don’t want to see leave in these situations, but Kodak’s legacy film business was almost completely replaced by competitors in digital imaging, and revenues dropped by more than 50 percent in the past five years, sending the company into Chapter 11.

What Kodak needs is a new sense of vision (perhaps from different leadership), and a management team that is motivated by that vision—not one that is sticking around just because they’re getting a bonus.

When Steve Jobs became chief executive officer of Apple Computer (AAPL) in 1997, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and many talented employees had left. But Jobs quickly created a new vision for Apple and rallied the remaining managers to support it. The Apple team he built was motivated to be part of an exciting new vision and share in its future upside. They weren’t there just to collect short-term “stay” bonuses. This was a key factor in the company’s success the past 10 years.

While it is easy to criticize Kodak, many large U.S. companies today are not growing at meaningful rates even as annual bonus money continues to flow to retain the existing team vs. rewarding real growth.

Kodak—and many other corporate boards—would better serve their shareholders by eliminating this “retention bonus” mentality and starting to create more meaningful rewards that focus on real long-term growth.