51–60 of 221 posts
If a founder invests little to no money in the startup, what is the founder risking that someone working under her isn't? One could argue that employees are risking more - in hard times they are more likely to be out of a job.
I don't think stock options have "zero" value. For a lot of people working on a salary it's hard to save money, so when a startup sells and an employee gets a sizable chunk of money from the sale, it's huge relative to their cash-flow perspective.
Except a liquidity event rarely happens. When they do, it's often a shell game for the investors to mask losses. The early stage employee's options are from the common pool; the investors get preferred options which are paid out first. Generally it's quite easy for the board to zero out employee options if things aren't going as well as hoped.
Executives hired well after me, mere months before the IPO, were buying racehorses. Go figure.
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Except a liquidity event rarely happens. When they do, it's often a shell game for the investors to mask losses. The early stage employee's options are from the common pool; the investors get preferred options which are paid out first. Generally it's quite easy for the board to zero out employee options if things aren't going as well as hoped.
Many years ago, at the first company I worked for that IPO'd, I think I was something like employee number 30. Employee number 1 was a good friend of mine, and after the event we and a few others decided "I'll show you mine if you show me yours". Jewel was big at the time, total honesty was all the rage. Now I had made "a bit" of money on my stock options, not an amount to be sniffed at, but far from a life-changing…
I live in the Midwest, and I think I would have a hard time spending 200K a year. Maybe my idea of happiness is wrong?
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Yeah, I'm not getting where that number comes from. (And I love the suggestion that it's merely "upper middle class".) Personally, I can live a pretty nice lifestyle on "only" a couple thousand in disposable income a month. I really can't imagine what I would do with $20-25,000 / month to spend. With that in mind, I tried a few numbers in the spreadsheet. Just to be more "realistic" I dropped the payday back down to…
Also, perhaps you are young and naive like me and don't think about the real cost of kids ;)
...where retiring rich is defined as spending $300,000 annually. I'd personally move somewhere cheaper once my income no longer depended on my location.
> "Let's assume you want to live in a major metro area, send your kids to private school..." That's his problem. When we moved to this country, my dad had an H1B visa and was making far below what an entry level Google employee is making. Nonetheless we had quite a comfortable life: rented an apartment in a suburb with a good school. Later, my parents (both of them finally rising to market rate) were able to afford a…
Because the quality of life in US apartment buildings is appalling. I don't want to hear every step that my upstairs neighbors take. I don't need to know when they go to the restroom in the middle of the night. I don't need my downstairs neighbor ask me not to walk after 10pm.
This is ridiculous. I'll live in a US apartment once the sound insulation issue is resolved (hint to US architects: It was solved by 1930 in the rest of the world).
As someone who just witnessed two non-founders of a startup that had a recent IPO become wealthy enough to retire -- B.S. You can do it with stock options (even without an IPO). Tony seems to be making a binary argument: it's not guaranteed, so you may as well give up on the idea. Of course I'm doing it for the money. I'm also doing it for other reasons. Did someone die and tell Tony Wright that the world is only com…
I couldn't agree with you more sabat, it isn't an either or scenario. I'm hoping for my first success to just be a springboard into more money making ventures.
I don't think stock options have "zero" value. For a lot of people working on a salary it's hard to save money, so when a startup sells and an employee gets a sizable chunk of money from the sale, it's huge relative to their cash-flow perspective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I'm not getting where that number comes from. (And I love the suggestion that it's merely "upper middle class".) Personally, I can live a pretty nice lifestyle on "only" a couple thousand in disposable income a month. I really can't imagine what I would do with $20-25,000 / month to spend. With that in mind, I tried a few numbers in the spreadsheet. Just to be more "realistic" I dropped the payday back down to…
I seriously don't mean this in an insulting/trollish way but I think you are either lacking imagination or underestimating how quickly you can adapt to a richer lifestyle. Given you are even here and thinking about entrepreneurial rewards I'd guess the latter. On the other hand perhaps I underestimate how... modest you like to live? Whilst I also raised my eyebrows at "upper middle class", I know people in that range…
State by state rates as of a few years ago: http://www.thereibrain.com/realestate-blog/2007/10/capital-g...
Luckily, my take from the Kongregate sale was enough to be real FYM (though I enjoy running the site enough to want to keep doing it for a long time anyway).