Is it possible that he's already cashed out some of his shares privately? (Get himself some liquidity prior to an exit.)
He's almost certainly cashed out partially. You don't get to Series F without cashing out.
CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
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Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#12And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#13IIRC PayPal was very similar - it was sold for $1.5B, but Max Levchin's share was only about $30M, and Elon Musk's was only about $100M. By comparison, many early Web 2.0 darlings (Del.icio.us, Blogger, Flickr) sold for only $20-40M, but their founders had only taken small seed rounds, and so the vast majority of the purchase price went to the founders. 75% of a $40M acquisition = 3% of a $1B acquisition. Something f…
This. Founders are better served maximizing traction at the lowest outside investment possible. If it doesn't become big, then you still hold a large chunk of a small company. And if does, then you hold a fairly large chunk of a large company.
I don't know it seems to me that Silicon Valley is littered with folks who've made a shit ton of money by founding companies and taking chunks off the table during funding rounds. Kevin Rose/Digg come to mind. This way if you become huge you still get a payday but even if it doesn't you're still a millionaire (and maybe an angel investor in companies that do become huge, Kevin Rose/Digg comes to mind).
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#14And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
The average engineer likely wasn't taking a (cash) pay cut to work there.
Working at a company that has raised $400M is closer to a post-IPO experience than a startup.
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#15And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
I think you're assuming that the employees were making large professional and financial sacrifices to work at Box. Considering the size of the company and the amount of funding, they most likely weren't. A random $200k payoff on top of a market competitive salary and benefits package is nothing to sneeze at. A job is not a scam just because it doesn't make you a multimillionaire over night.
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#16And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
The average engineer likely wasn't taking a (cash) pay cut to work there. Working at a company that has raised $400M is closer to a post-IPO experience than a startup.
I've worked at a couple startups as well as a couple big companies. My salary + bonus has always been much, much higher at large companies than the startups. I also worked much less, so my effective per hour pay was double or more. Perhaps I got the short end of the stick, but I've never seen a dime from my stock options at these companies. One of which was aquired for a decent amount more than the valuation of the company at the time my shares were issued. I suppose the preferrreds took it all. It wouldn't have been that much anyway. Maybe 50 or 100k.
In the best realistic case, you are looking at 3-5 years of engineering pay as a one time exit after years of putting in extra hours and probably being underpaid. That's been my experience at least as well as everyone I personally know who has worked in the Bay Area the past decade.
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#17And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
I think you're assuming that the employees were making large professional and financial sacrifices to work at Box. Considering the size of the company and the amount of funding, they most likely weren't. A random $200k payoff on top of a market competitive salary and benefits package is nothing to sneeze at. A job is not a scam just because it doesn't make you a multimillionaire over night.
I know nothing about Box, so perhaps the people working there were paid market rate and worked normal hours. If so, I take back my comment.
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#184% for a company like Box is pretty consistent (maybe slightly higher).
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2011/10/14/understanding-...
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#19And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
I think you're assuming that the employees were making large professional and financial sacrifices to work at Box. Considering the size of the company and the amount of funding, they most likely weren't. A random $200k payoff on top of a market competitive salary and benefits package is nothing to sneeze at. A job is not a scam just because it doesn't make you a multimillionaire over night.
Don't y'all know? If an individual receives a certain payout, we can reason backwards about the amount of risk they must have shouldered based on the amount!
(My apologies, nilkn, this isn't aimed at you. I object to the near-religious startup belief that risk = reward. Real life is so much less supervised than that. :) )
Re: CEO Aaron Levie Will Only Own 4.1% Of Box When It IPOs, Investor DFJ Owns 25.5%
#20And the average engineer who thought they'd be rich, probably owns 0.0002%. Have fun with your 200k! Startups are such a scam for the employees.
Except in very rare cases, you will never become rich by being someone else's employee.