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Dropbox S-1

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Re: Dropbox S-1

#301

Post by rrcaptain »

matchagaucho wrote: post #275
throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

If there's ever an Equifax scale breach at Dropbox, accountability will fall on the SVP of Eng.

You realize Equifax has had pretty much no consequences for their gross negligence, right?

Re: Dropbox S-1

#303

Post by adventured »

throwaway93192 wrote: post #279
matchagaucho wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there's ever an Equifax scale breach at Dropbox, accountability will fall on the SVP of Eng.

Yes, he'd be fired. Perhaps have to testify in front of Congress, even. Accountability is worth $8M a year?

The average NBA player salary is $6 million per year.

In the next few years all of the NBA players combined (~420 players) are set to make more in salary than all the S&P 500 CEOs earn in salary combined.

Should top executives at $10 billion companies (7x the average value of an NBA team) receive compensation on par with professional athletes? How does that not make sense?

The US will spend $10 billion per year compensating several thousand athletes. How much should be spent compensating the people directly responsible for operating businesses that represent trillions of dollars in GDP and tens of millions of employees?

Mediocre middle relief baseball pitchers should make $8 million per year, but execs running billion dollar companies shouldn't? You can argue that baseball players are overpaid, but that's an absurd premise. It's directly representative of the value in the system - tens of trillions in wealth in the stock market, and vast profit generation - and the price of acquiring talent.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#304

Post by awj »

matchagaucho wrote: post #275
throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

If there's ever an Equifax scale breach at Dropbox, accountability will fall on the SVP of Eng.

"accountability", as in a golden parachute and maybe an uncomfortable congressional hearing or two?

Yeah, huge responsibility there...

Re: Dropbox S-1

#306

Post by throwaway289348 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #248
throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

> When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Well, it'll mostly pay off for major capital holders (which founders are likely but not certain to be, depending on the course of business before then, and top executives at the time may or may not.) Top executives as such (outside of their role, if any, as capital holders) may get more benefit than you, but even if so it will be much less than the c…

For better or worse, I think most of us have made peace with the fact that capital holders can put their money at risk, wait several years, and earn a large return with some probability. For some guy to waltz in a couple months before an IPO and make $35m out of thin air... it's a bit much. Especially when many of us have seen how hard early employees work, staying til late hours and thinking someone will compensate them for their extra effort.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#307

Post by laktek »

It's interesting that they use Paying Users & Average Revenue per paying user as their key business metrics. I find it simpler and closer to the reality than the MAU & ARR most other SaaS rely on these days.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#308

Post by lsc »

throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

>Good for you if you're OK with that extreme imbalance. But, I know too many people that discovered only upon an exit, that the financial reward was never destined for them.

so personally? I don't care about the imbalance, I care about what I'm getting and how that compares to what I can get elsewhere. I understand I'm playing in a rich man's sandbox, and I'm okay with that. The fact that the man three levels up makes ridiculously more than I do doesn't diminish the fact that I'm getting treated better (mostly measured in getting paid better) than I would be at the next best job I could get.

That said, if I was an investor in the company and not another beneficiary of investor largess, I'd be pissed.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#309

Post by lsc »

throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

to follow up:

> But, I know too many people that discovered only upon an exit, that the financial reward was never destined for them.

When I interview at pre-ipo companies, they usually tell me how many options they are giving me and a per-option strike price, but no idea of how many outstanding shares there are.

In this case, I think it's deeply irrational to assume that you are getting anything at all; if a professional is offering you something of value as an inducement, they are going to make damn sure you know what that value is.

The upshot is that when you interview at these companies, make them compete for you on salary, benefits and working conditions. If they also want to give you a mystery box, that's cool, but understand that it's a mystery box, and probably won't be worth much at all even if there is an exit.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#310

Post by FireBeyond »

adventured wrote: post #303
throwaway93192 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, he'd be fired. Perhaps have to testify in front of Congress, even. Accountability is worth $8M a year?

The average NBA player salary is $6 million per year. In the next few years all of the NBA players combined (~420 players) are set to make more in salary than all the S&P 500 CEOs earn in salary combined. Should top executives at $10 billion companies (7x the average value of an NBA team) receive compensation on par with professional athletes? How does that not make sense? The US will spend $10 billion per year compe…

How many of those $10B companies are actually really worth that, not just an inflated result of funding rounds.

The 420 or so players in the NBA can largely be considered to be the best 420 players in the world.

NBA teams also have a pretty high revenue to value ratio.

Points to you too for ignoring that in many cases the salary of a Fortune 500 CEO is, in many to most cases a much smaller fraction of their compensation packages. In many cases bonuses and other compensation is between 3 and 10 or more times the salary, so not exactly equitable, though it makes for a better sound bite.

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