We seem to have a lot of millionaires on this site.
Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
151–160 of 191 posts
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#152I believe that the exact amount was $112 (net). Unbeknownst to most, our executives screwed everyone over and issued preferred stock to a major investment bank. I, and many others, had thousands of options, but the share price for common shares was too low for most grants to be worth anything. The executives all received bonuses for the sale from the investment bank.
I had a similar experience, a VC bought "preferred stock" (I can't remember the exact jargon), when the company was sold, the payout went entirely to the VC, and no standard stock holders received anything.
yes, this happened to me, too.
shocking. ;)
not really. it's pretty expected.
stock options are lottery tickets.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#153I would be highly suspicious of the greater than $11M category. You'd have to have one hell of an exit to get $11M as an employee and according to the poll about 1 / 16 people on hacker news have been through this or more. From my experience and those of my peers I'd put it at somewhere betwen 1/100 (being extremely optimistic) to 1/1000 (probably still being optimistic) - and yes there are the google, facebook etc.…
I suspect most of the people answering in the millions were founders and not employees. Employees usually have less than 1% equity, and there just aren't that many multi-billion dollar exits.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd prefer to be the better person here rather than defame them publicly. If anyone would like more information or to discuss this privately, however, my email is in my profile.
I don't like that this position is assumed by default by so many wronged parties on HN. If you're really eager to take the noble path, explain the story as objectively as you can and let other people decide. Letting other people get burned when they easily could've learned from your experience is not a noble thing.
I don't think it's really about being noble. When money is involved you don't know who is going to take offense with what you say. People with money or opportunity may not like the concept of you airing their or other people's "dirty laundry". It's also hard to verify information & a whistleblower can just as easily be painted as a hater/whiner or someone who has ulterior motives.
So shady people or companies continue to be shady because people don't want to risk loss of potential income or reputation.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait. Why would you do this? Can't you hold your options as, well, options until you want to exercise and sell them? I don't get why you would convert options to stock unless you wanted to sell them right away. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks.
I am having to get ramped up on this right now as my company is filing. I'm not 100% positive, but, I believe if you exercise and sell in a single transaction, you're going to get hit with ~40% short term capital gains tax. Holding the exercised stock for a year will reduce the tax hit at sell time to ~22% long term gains.
long-term cap gains are 15%, not 22% -- until 2013. unless congress intervenes before then.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
I might agree with you, but we'd need more information to really know for sure. A minute of Googling turns up TechCrunch speculating YC and other investors got paid back in this deal, in which case I'd say this is pretty sleazy.
Why would it be sleazy? What if the investors got their money back and nothing more? Even if they got more based on preference, I don't see the problem. That TechCrunch article doesn't really present the event as a great exit, but more that the founders were hired to move on from a startup that wasn't really going anywhere. (the post specifically says that Google didn't technically acquire the company)
You don't see anything sleezy about an employee who put in both sweat equity and money getting nothing for his stock, while other shareholders are reimbursed for theirs?
Seems both sleezy and a cautionary tale for those thinking of working at a startup from where I'm sitting...
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#157I'm surprised how many are in the "greater than $11M" bucket. Was that perhaps just multiple people from a small handful of companies?
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Less than "most" good founders were employees at hot startups. I base this on a good deal of data.
Evidence that "most" good founders were employees at hot startups, and that most important companies that generate the most wealth occur in 'networks of success': https://s3.amazonaws.com/rjurney_public_web/images/Atlanta-S... https://s3.amazonaws.com/rjurney_public_web/images/fairchild... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia#Membership
Interesting. Atlanta security startups have significant pedigrees. It's the same in chip companies, where founders are older and many trace their roots back to Fairchild. Among consumer internet companies, most good founders have not been part of a successful company before.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd prefer to be the better person here rather than defame them publicly Idly allowing bad and potentially evil behavior to go unrecognized and unchallenged is by no means being a good person. Not to Godwin the thread, but your attitude is why evil flourishes, and on much grander scales than stock allocation.
He is a victim here, why blame the victim over the perpetrators? Makes little sense to me. As well as saying "evil flourishes"...
Victims do have the responsibility to report their crimes.
Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Evidence that "most" good founders were employees at hot startups, and that most important companies that generate the most wealth occur in 'networks of success': https://s3.amazonaws.com/rjurney_public_web/images/Atlanta-S... https://s3.amazonaws.com/rjurney_public_web/images/fairchild... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia#Membership
Interesting. Atlanta security startups have significant pedigrees. It's the same in chip companies, where founders are older and many trace their roots back to Fairchild. Among consumer internet companies, most good founders have not been part of a successful company before.
What of the Paypal mafia?