Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#271

Post by hueving » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:21 PM UTC

hugs wrote: post #221

technofiend wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you owe taxes on it, regardless. I heard some sob stories from the brokers at Charles Schwab after Enron went under - energy traders who had borrowed heavily (on margin) against positions that were now worthless. Oy.

Yes, "wait a year" fixes most of these problems.

Well no, it depends on what you are waiting on.

Some of the worst horror stories are from people that exercised their options and then waited a year to sell the stock to qualify for long term capital gains. Then the stock subsequently crashed so they owed a massive AMT tax for the difference between strike price and price on exercise and got almost nothing from the actual stock sale.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#272

Post by econner » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:23 PM UTC

kapkapkap wrote: post #267

Can someone comment as to what kind of payday this IPO translates to for say the 30th engineer hired by Snap? (I realize that this is impossible to answer accurately, and that there is still a 4 month lockup)

Let's say you started in 2013 when Snap's valuation was $800M. You were granted $80K (0.01% of the company). This is likely a very low estimate given what I've heard about snap equity. Snap raised good rounds so dilution isn't much of a concern. Snap went up 35x in value. As of today your equity would be worth ~$2.8M.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#273

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:23 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #268

kapkapkap wrote: post #267

Can someone comment as to what kind of payday this IPO translates to for say the 30th engineer hired by Snap? (I realize that this is impossible to answer accurately, and that there is still a 4 month lockup)

Interviewed with Snapchat about 3-4 years ago (sub-100 employees). Did not get an offer, but their interview process was pretty standard and professional. They were giving out 0.001% equity at the time. I'd say it would come out to 250k-500k, but it's very hard to extrapolate. They were already a mega hit with like 10 employees so I doubt anyone that hasn't been there super early (like first 5 employees) will become…

[deleted]

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#274

Post by khazhou » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:26 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #268

kapkapkap wrote: post #267

Can someone comment as to what kind of payday this IPO translates to for say the 30th engineer hired by Snap? (I realize that this is impossible to answer accurately, and that there is still a 4 month lockup)

Interviewed with Snapchat about 3-4 years ago (sub-100 employees). Did not get an offer, but their interview process was pretty standard and professional. They were giving out 0.001% equity at the time. I'd say it would come out to 250k-500k, but it's very hard to extrapolate. They were already a mega hit with like 10 employees so I doubt anyone that hasn't been there super early (like first 5 employees) will become…

Assuming the founders held 30%, the employee equity was 1/30,000th that of founders. I don't understand how engineers are ok with their boss getting 30,000X their compensation.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#275

Post by econner » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:27 PM UTC

khazhou wrote: post #274

dvt wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewed with Snapchat about 3-4 years ago (sub-100 employees). Did not get an offer, but their interview process was pretty standard and professional. They were giving out 0.001% equity at the time. I'd say it would come out to 250k-500k, but it's very hard to extrapolate. They were already a mega hit with like 10 employees so I doubt anyone that hasn't been there super early (like first 5 employees) will become…

Assuming the founders held 30%, the employee equity was 1/30,000th that of founders. I don't understand how engineers are ok with their boss getting 30,000X their compensation.

Yea, I can't see it being this low either.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#276

Post by pwang » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:28 PM UTC

eldavido wrote: post #222

rubicon33 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone. I have been struck with amazement at the rise of apps like Snap, Twitter, and Instragram. They have captivated an entire generation, leaving me on the sideline. As a developer, I suppose I'm not the most social being on the planet, but it does concern me that I have become "detached" from everyone else. I spoke with an Uber driver the other day whos 14 year old son has 700,000 instragram followers…

I think there's a socioeconomic side of this that isn't discussed enough. I have a highly engaging, challenging job that pays well. I'm a holder of an advanced degree, regularly read long-form books, and am engaged and will be married soon. Frankly I think I'm pretty typical a lot of people on HN, and developers in general. I don't consume much media, though. I entirely checked out from facebook and haven't looked ba…

Yes, a bunch of modern software dev is drug dealing.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#277

Post by stanmancan » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:32 PM UTC

khazhou wrote: post #274

dvt wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewed with Snapchat about 3-4 years ago (sub-100 employees). Did not get an offer, but their interview process was pretty standard and professional. They were giving out 0.001% equity at the time. I'd say it would come out to 250k-500k, but it's very hard to extrapolate. They were already a mega hit with like 10 employees so I doubt anyone that hasn't been there super early (like first 5 employees) will become…

Assuming the founders held 30%, the employee equity was 1/30,000th that of founders. I don't understand how engineers are ok with their boss getting 30,000X their compensation.

Because the engineer doesn't assume any risk assuming they're being paid market salary? The engineer can stop working when they clock out? The engineer doesn't have their own awesome idea? Or they don't have the desire to run their own company?

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#278

Post by ambicapter » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:44 PM UTC

da02 wrote: post #252

komali2 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the state of the snapchat app on android, I absolutely agree.

Can you elaborate on the state? (I never used SnapChat, but I am on Android.)

For one, I read in an HN thread that Snapchat Android doesn't actually use the camera API for the phone, it just screenshots the screen.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#279

Post by dvt » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:45 PM UTC

khazhou wrote: post #274

dvt wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interviewed with Snapchat about 3-4 years ago (sub-100 employees). Did not get an offer, but their interview process was pretty standard and professional. They were giving out 0.001% equity at the time. I'd say it would come out to 250k-500k, but it's very hard to extrapolate. They were already a mega hit with like 10 employees so I doubt anyone that hasn't been there super early (like first 5 employees) will become…

Assuming the founders held 30%, the employee equity was 1/30,000th that of founders. I don't understand how engineers are ok with their boss getting 30,000X their compensation.

First, equity isn't compensation, it's ownership. Second, it's about risk. Third, it's about luck.

So, if you get paid a market salary and benefits, you can't really expect to own much of the company that's providing you with that salary and benefits as it's essentially burning money on you. If you came in and said "can I get 1% ownership if I take 15k a year with no benefits" that would be a different story, but that's not how this works.

Re: Snap Jumps in Debut After App Maker Raises $3.4B in IPO

#280

Post by omarchowdhury » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 11:57 PM UTC

nemothekid wrote: post #213

Kazamai wrote: post #210

Ignorance is bliss in a world where half the people at YC could develop the core snap chat app in a week.

You should have done it, and sold it for at least 100M then.

Yeah, well, we still haven't figured out time machines.