At a startup that folded, $0. (Failing is an exit!) At a startup acquired by a larger company, about $20k. Neither made up for the delta vs market rate salary.
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?
#12I joined an already-successful ~400 person company with an already-published S-1 at around year 8 or 9, and worked there for around three years in total. I was given options representing such a small fraction of the company that it wasn't memorable (perhaps a hundredth or thousandth of one percent?). My options were underwater for several months after a lackluster IPO, but eventually the stock picked up enough steam to make me around $300,000.
Of all the companies/startups I've worked for, this one was by far the most corporate and least startup-ey, yet this was the only one that made me more than a penny after an exit, despite working at a few other startups that have had "exits."
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious why you have 1,000 shared remaining? Are you still employed there? Also, what was the tax bill on the $14k and $1.1M in terms of percentage? Was it long term capital gains 15% fixed?
I am no longer employed there. I hold them mostly for nostalgic purposes. I sold all of my shares because it seemed foolish to have 100% of my net worth in one company. Holding 1000 shares feels okay. Tax bill was ~0 on the $14K and my marginal tax rate on half (I’m Canadian)
How do you not owe any tax on $14,000 income? Is that some Canadian benefit?
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#14Startup 1: $0
Startup 2: $0
Startup 3: $3,000,000
Startup 4: $0
That's over the course of 25 years, with a few stints at non-startups as well.
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#15I once joined a company that already had several hundred employees as an entry level software engineer. It was my least favorite job: I couldn't find a fit and I only lasted just over a year. However, during that year they IPO'd, and because I made it over the vesting cliff I was able to buy my options on my way out.
Ballpark numbers: I had 300 options at $5. post-IPO price was around $15. I did the "sell to buy" thing, so I sold roughly 100 shares to pay for buying all 300. I haven't sold the other ones yet but the stock is north of $50/share. It seems like there's less than 20k shares total in circulation. (that's like an order of magnitude less than I expected? I took "shares held(000s)" and divided by "% Own", and rounded.)
I have the impression that most of the "old-timer" employees did quite well as long as they sold their stocks at the right time: one guy spent 6+ months traveling and then took his time finding his next job, another guy thinks he might be able to retire in his '40s.
edit: as elsewhere in this thread, I also worked at a startup that failed ($0), and I've left a couple that to my knowledge are still going ($ -4k , because both times i bought options on my way out just in case they make it)
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#16At a startup that folded, $0. (Failing is an exit!) At a startup acquired by a larger company, about $20k. Neither made up for the delta vs market rate salary.
Yeah, my first exited to $0 as well.
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#17Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#18I was employee 30 at a startup. I worked there about 3.5 years, and then left. The company was acquired a year later. I made about $115,000, which frankly is a lot less than I would have made at a public company. My friend at Twitter during the same timeframe made close to $1M, and my friend I worked with at the startup left to join Facebook and also made over $1M.
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#19I joined a successful startup about ten months before it was acquired for several hundred million. The deal somehow led to a lot of employees losing their options (myself included). There was some discussion of a lawsuit but it fizzled.
Re: Ask HN: How much did you, as an employee, make when your startup exited?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am no longer employed there. I hold them mostly for nostalgic purposes. I sold all of my shares because it seemed foolish to have 100% of my net worth in one company. Holding 1000 shares feels okay. Tax bill was ~0 on the $14K and my marginal tax rate on half (I’m Canadian)
How do you not owe any tax on $14,000 income? Is that some Canadian benefit?
When a Canadian has $14,000 in capital gains, their tax liability is calculated as: $14,000 * 50% * marginal tax rate. The 50% is basically the Canadian way of taxing capital gains lower than earned income.
What GP was trying to convey, albeit in a slightly confusing fashion, was this:
1. He had $14,000 in capital gains
2. No tax was directly accessed against this $14,000 amount, in other word: "tax bill was ~0 on the $14K".
3. The taxable portion of his capital gains was $14,000 * 50% = $7000
4. He paid his marginal tax rate on the taxable portion of his capital gains ($7000)