Beside a startup, what are the other ways to significant wealth for a dev?

Post by JSeymourATL » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

fishcakes wrote: post #19

Here are a few ideas: - Selling enterprise software (you can make 10%-20% of an 8 or 9 figure deal) - Selling securities in some form or another (you make ~5% of deals worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars) - high leverage consulting (solving very hard tech problems for lots of people. for example: I have a friend who helps a whole bunch of computer vision companies and makes a ton. Another friend is an S…

Post by cici_sleestak » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 6:27 PM UTC

starmole wrote: post #180

zzalpha wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I'm trying to figure out. $600k salary+bonuses is C-level executive territory. The idea of an engineer making that kind of money in straight compensation sounds ludicrous to me. If it's in the form of options, you'll forgive me if I treat that as pretend money until it's transformed into real wealth.

600k including bonuses. Vested RSU bonuses. So real cash in hand. And those usually keep replenishing over time so after an initial delay it's compensation.

Post by michaelrwolfe1 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 5:59 AM UTC

chubot wrote: post #63

ryandrake wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If what you say is true about your own situation, you must realize that you are an extreme outlier, and no general advice you give is going to allow someone to repeat your immense luck. "Be valuable and you will be paid" sounds like vague happy-talk, not concrete, repeatable steps that one can put into practice and replicate your success. Most people who are "exceptional at what they do" are putzing around at a corpo…

No, being motivated by money is likely to make you less wealthy, because it leads you to the same behaviors as other people seeking money. You are then competing with them, which lessens your likelihood of success. Read Peter Thiel's Zero to One. He talks about competition vs. monopoly. You want to do things that other people aren't doing. He talks about the Harvard MBA grads who chase the last bubble, i.e. getting y…

Post by michaelrwolfe1 » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 6:08 AM UTC

gadders wrote: post #111

ChuckMcM wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As pointed out, get straight in your head the difference between "wealth" and "rich". "Wealthy" means you can do all the things you like to do all the time, "rich" means you have a big number in an account with one or more financial institutions. Most folks I know in the bay area don't want to "retire" what they want is to work on what ever their passion leads them too without worrying that if it isn't paying them an…

>> If you work at a large tech firm and participate in their employee stock purchase program and/or get stock options, then you are doubly leveraged as that can add a nice kicker to your salary. Normally this is OK, but can be a concentration of risk if all your wealth is tied up in salary from your employer and stock from your employer. Ask Lehmans employees.

Post by dleskov » Sun, Jun 07, 2015, 2:56 AM UTC

nudpiedo wrote: post #136

dleskov wrote: post #61

I am with a small company focused on compilers and managed runtimes (JVM), and I can tell you that _good_ compiler consultants are in high demand. For instance, I had a discussion with a CEO of such specialized consultancy looking for GCC specialists last year, and he said that LLVM engineers are even harder to come by. I also see processor startups popping up all the time that need compiler/tools engineers badly. Ov…

Can you specify what do you mean with "_good_ compiler consultants"? It doesn't look like the guy who tunes the configuration of the runtimes right? Perhaps someone that writes and modifies the source of a compiler for a special set-up?