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Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

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Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#61

Post by rubicon33 »

civility wrote: post #56

First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options: $0 Second startup, I was told I'd get 5% of the company (no contract though). I quit after a year without pushing the topic: $0 Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time. I'm retiring this year. I learned a lot o…

"Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts"

I would love to know how. Am I just stupid? How am I missing these opportunities? Someone above posted that 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings. And you're saying that a "fairly small" company netted you $2,000,000 savings?

I am failing at life, apparently.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#62

Post by deanmoriarty »

rubicon33 wrote: post #59
deanmoriarty wrote: post #58

Joined among the first 10 employees. The company grew to 200 employees and 400M valuation in 4 years. Sold last year a portion of my vested shares for 1M to investors as part of a secondary transaction, and I still have a decent amount (70%) of vested shares and unvested options, since the company hasn’t exited yet and management has no plan of doing so in the short/medium term. I’m not counting on the rest of the eq…

Seriously? 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings? That seems... crazy. Can someone explain how that works? Your salary alone living in the bay area, definitely isn't goin to net you $1,000,000 in savings.

I got an offer from Netflix for 450k cash and another offer from FB for 210k cash with 600k equity over 4 years, a few years ago.

Considering how well those stocks did after such offers were made to me, and how frugal I am (avid minimalist spending Also, the 1M from the startup wasn’t net, but gross (taxed at long term capital gain luckily).

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#63

Post by funded12345 »

CTO on founding team. Started out with 10% equity. Co. is now 6 years old. After a merger (diluted by 40%), $10m investment (diluted more), $4m strategic investment (diluted more), then investors taking money off the table first for an exit event - I stand to make $100k if we sell at $20m and $600k if we sell at $40m (currently valued at $20mish). That's pre tax.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#64

Post by darkstar_16 »

One of the first employees, the company got sold in about 3 years from starting, enterprise space but very little revenue and a frankly half baked product. I think of it as a team acquisition, made about 5k and 40k in RSUs to vest over 4 years.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#65

Post by civility »

rubicon33 wrote: post #61
civility wrote: post #56

First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options: $0 Second startup, I was told I'd get 5% of the company (no contract though). I quit after a year without pushing the topic: $0 Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time. I'm retiring this year. I learned a lot o…

"Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts" I would love to know how. Am I just stupid? How am I missing these opportunities? Someone above posted that 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings. And you're saying that a "fairly small" company netted you $2,000,000 savings? I am failing at life, apparently.

I've never worked for a "big" company, much less one of FAANG. Although, I knew a kid who went to Apple, and he did well. I also had a friend from Intel, and he did well too.

My situation was much more than 4 years, but it was steady (exponential) growth at a nice rate, and I'm exiting in my mid 40s. Maybe I could've done better, but to the point of this topic, my one stable job did much better than the three startups I was exposed to.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#66

Post by rosser »

rubicon33 wrote: post #61
civility wrote: post #56

First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options: $0 Second startup, I was told I'd get 5% of the company (no contract though). I quit after a year without pushing the topic: $0 Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time. I'm retiring this year. I learned a lot o…

"Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts" I would love to know how. Am I just stupid? How am I missing these opportunities? Someone above posted that 4 years at FAANG would net you $1,000,000 savings. And you're saying that a "fairly small" company netted you $2,000,000 savings? I am failing at life, apparently.

> I am failing at life, apparently.

Insofar as you seem to be "keeping score" against anyone but yourself, maybe a little. Otherwise, not really.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#68

Post by jaggederest »

I've worked for around 10-15 startups now over the years. Only one meaningful exit or equity:

NEWR from 2009 to 2011, employee #20 or so, 20k shares (0.05%), exercised most of my vested ~10k before leaving, sold post-IPO-lockup at ~$36/share for a gross of around $385k . Would have gone up if I had waited to sell, to around $1m now. Most of my former coworkers are independently wealthy now, solid folks who all absolutely deserve it. Should have negotiated for more shares or cash, stayed longer, and exercised all vested shares. Live and learn I guess.

Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?

#69

Post by ikeyany »

civility wrote: post #56

First startup, I traded nearly all of my salary over four years for stock options: $0 Second startup, I was told I'd get 5% of the company (no contract though). I quit after a year without pushing the topic: $0 Third job was not a startup, but it was a fairly small company, and I've made nearly two million in tax deferred accounts having made a healthy salary the entire time. I'm retiring this year. I learned a lot o…

How could you afford to work for the first startup for four years without any income?
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