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Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

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Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#91

Post by oakfr »

sskates wrote: post #37
claudiulodro wrote: post #19

Congrats! HN is always saying that working for a FAANG is better money than working for a startup even if it IPOs, so my question to you is: How did your employees make out during the IPO? Is the prevailing HN wisdom correct? Did your average developer employee that stuck it through with you on your journey end up with more or less than what they would have made working at FAANG?

I'm going to try to answer the question without divulging how anyone individually did. I took a look at the initial 4 year option grants for the first 10 engineers (this doesn't count refreshers or other follow on grants). The average value at $50/share (yesterday's opening price) is just over $10M. The group varied in experience from just out of school to a few years working when they joined. I feel we were a good d…

While I am happy for your company and for your first 10 employees (congrats, really), I am not sure that looking at their return teaches us much.

Joining a fresh startup as employee #10 (or less) is somewhat of a gamble (even at YC). The following data would put things in perspective:

1. How do the average first 10 employees of a YC startup do?

2. How did the following cohorts in your company do?

I am not trying to be negative here, but trying to put things in perspective. Congrats again!

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#92

Post by hnmullany »

swyx wrote: post #89
caseyf7 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While joining a FAANG in the past was most likely the richest path, that may not be true today.

Here's the classic post on the FAANG vs startups debate, for the uninitiated https://startupljackson.com/post/135800367395/how-to-get-ric... >If you want to get rich, your best bet on a risk-adjusted basis is to join a profitable and growing public company. Google for short. Make $200-500k all-in a year, work hard and move up a level every 3-5 years, sell options as they vest (in case you joined Enron), and retire at…

Yes, now would be a great time to join Amplitude.

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#93

Post by plinkplonk »

Congratulations Spenser!

From the YC article

"But, in fact, they rather quickly settled on a different problem space that they understood deeply and which immediately resonated with their batchmates. It was also a problem for which the market had not yet, in Spenser and Curtis’s opinion, come up with a great solution. Their chosen target was, of course, mobile analytics. This, it turned out, was precisely the right idea for the team. "

How did you come up with/converge to this idea? what was the thinking process? TIA

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#94

Post by boringg »

Now that you have gone to the public markets for more capital (congrats on what look to be a good liquidity event), where do you see the company going from here, how do you get there without private equity incentives for employees (ie continuing to get good talent) and what are the greatest challenges going forward?

Best of luck on the next stage of the journey in the public markets!

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#96

Post by interblag »

Congrats on the IPO - Amplitude is a great product and the team behind it seems genuinely awesome.

I had a question about your view on the enterprise software sales process? Currently I am avoiding upgrading from the free tier of Amplitude due to fatigue with negotiations - the whole "contact us for higher volumes model" is a bit exhausting.

As someone who does this pricing model, I wanted to ask if you think it's optimal? Have you ever considered making your volume discounts transparent and allowing users to quickly understand how Amplitude pricing will work at scale? Are you just going along with the crowd on opaque pricing or do you genuinely think it's a better model?

Appreciate your thoughts!

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#98

Post by sskates »

oakfr wrote: post #91
sskates wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to try to answer the question without divulging how anyone individually did. I took a look at the initial 4 year option grants for the first 10 engineers (this doesn't count refreshers or other follow on grants). The average value at $50/share (yesterday's opening price) is just over $10M. The group varied in experience from just out of school to a few years working when they joined. I feel we were a good d…

While I am happy for your company and for your first 10 employees (congrats, really), I am not sure that looking at their return teaches us much. Joining a fresh startup as employee #10 (or less) is somewhat of a gamble (even at YC). The following data would put things in perspective: 1. How do the average first 10 employees of a YC startup do? 2. How did the following cohorts in your company do? I am not trying to b…

To be clear, it's the first 10 engineers, a very different group from the first 10 employees.

No question that the economics of FAANG is way better than an average YC company. That's an easy one. I don't have the data, but the economic outcome is easily 2-5x, maybe more.

Following cohorts of engineers are a fraction of what I outlined so the economics are different. It's too hard for me to do the work to get an exact calculation, but probably the next cohort of 10 engineers is something like 1/2 that, and then subsequent ones are down to 1/3 or 1/4. They're joining years later and so taking on much less risk at that point.

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#99

Post by sskates »

swyx wrote: post #89
caseyf7 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While joining a FAANG in the past was most likely the richest path, that may not be true today.

Here's the classic post on the FAANG vs startups debate, for the uninitiated https://startupljackson.com/post/135800367395/how-to-get-ric... >If you want to get rich, your best bet on a risk-adjusted basis is to join a profitable and growing public company. Google for short. Make $200-500k all-in a year, work hard and move up a level every 3-5 years, sell options as they vest (in case you joined Enron), and retire at…

I completely agree with the linked post!

Re: Tell HN: Amplitude (YC W12) just went public – AMA

#100

Post by oakfr »

sskates wrote: post #98
oakfr wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I am happy for your company and for your first 10 employees (congrats, really), I am not sure that looking at their return teaches us much. Joining a fresh startup as employee #10 (or less) is somewhat of a gamble (even at YC). The following data would put things in perspective: 1. How do the average first 10 employees of a YC startup do? 2. How did the following cohorts in your company do? I am not trying to b…

To be clear, it's the first 10 engineers, a very different group from the first 10 employees. No question that the economics of FAANG is way better than an average YC company. That's an easy one. I don't have the data, but the economic outcome is easily 2-5x, maybe more. Following cohorts of engineers are a fraction of what I outlined so the economics are different. It's too hard for me to do the work to get an exact…

Thank you for your reply. Makes sense.

By the way, thank you for running this AMA and answering all the questions with so much clarity and transparency. What an example!

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