For Airbnb employees, dream turns into disillusionment

Post by freyr » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #34

human20190310 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to that, the founders are signaling their own long-term lack of confidence by selling their shares when no one else is allowed to do so. Employees are correct to pressure their employers to IPO or GTFO, especially considering that many of these companies are on a trajectory where they're worth less over time (e.g. the collapsing valuations of Uber, Lyft, Slack, "We", etc).

True in the case of wework yes but in the case of Airbnb the founders seem to have collectively cashed out only a few tens of million, which just sounds like they cashed out just enough to buy themselves nice cars or something

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #34

human20190310 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to that, the founders are signaling their own long-term lack of confidence by selling their shares when no one else is allowed to do so. Employees are correct to pressure their employers to IPO or GTFO, especially considering that many of these companies are on a trajectory where they're worth less over time (e.g. the collapsing valuations of Uber, Lyft, Slack, "We", etc).

True in the case of wework yes but in the case of Airbnb the founders seem to have collectively cashed out only a few tens of million, which just sounds like they cashed out just enough to buy themselves nice cars or something

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

literallycancer wrote: post #42

Judgmentality wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Airbnb is by all accounts a wildly successful company I remember 5 years ago when I turned down a lucrative offer from Uber because I just didn't believe in the company. People told me I was crazy, that Uber was the future of transportation, and how could I not understand how stupid I was? I just looked the fundamentals and said it will never make money. AirBnB and Uber are very different companies, the most notabl…

Uber doesn't need to make money for you to make money from Uber stock.

Post by heavenlyblue » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

huac wrote: post #22

throwitaway321 wrote: post #19

I spent most of my 20s (7+ years) at a startup that is currently a “unicorn”, and consequently have an ok amount of shares locked up in the same situation. As the company’s valuation grew higher and higher the equity grants became significant lower. It was balanced out by my pay becoming more and more competitive vs other large companies. But eventuality I decided ~80% was as fully vested as I’ll ever be — Not to men…

don't you owe taxes on the stock appreciation?

Post by throwitaway321 » Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

jzl wrote: post #24

throwitaway321 wrote: post #19

I spent most of my 20s (7+ years) at a startup that is currently a “unicorn”, and consequently have an ok amount of shares locked up in the same situation. As the company’s valuation grew higher and higher the equity grants became significant lower. It was balanced out by my pay becoming more and more competitive vs other large companies. But eventuality I decided ~80% was as fully vested as I’ll ever be — Not to men…

"and because I joined so early my options were cheap enough to exercise over time" --> So you were exercising regularly while the company still wasn't worth much? That's a best-case scenario. The problem comes when early employees have a low strike price but don't exercise until the valuation is high, either because of vesting or just not getting around to it. Anyone with, e.g. 50 cent Airbnb options is looking at a…