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Atlassian was founded in 2002. An experienced developer, with a salary of A$140000 per year in 2015 dollars, who've worked there since 2005 for 10 years, will h
by meric 11y ago
Atlassian was founded in 2002. An experienced developer, with a salary of A$140000 per year in 2015 dollars, who've worked there since 2005 for 10 years, will have received A$1.4m in 2015 dollars in salary. Add the $200k payout and it adds up to A$1.6m.
Atlassian is valued at A$8b, that is roughly $8m per employee.
Collecting only A$1.6m out of A$8m total value per employee isn't spectacular, but it isn't as bad as the nominal $200k payout makes it out to be. If you were working on a full time basis, you never had to fund the business on your credit card, and even if Atlassian went bankrupt the day before the IPO and plunged to $0 in value, you still got to keep A$1.4m of the A$1.6m.
You got to become a millionaire if you saved and invested well, while minting a billionaire. Sure, it's not a good a deal as being a founder of a IPO'ed billion dollar startup, it's not exactly a bad deal either.
- Domenic_S 11y agoIf you're counting the employee's salaries, be sure to count the founders' as well.
- meric 11y agoIn Atlassian's case the salaries of founders probably add up to around $3m, which is insignificant next to the $4+b value of their shares. Also, high salaries for founders is an issue only when the founders did not fund their own business. You're right, in a startup, funded by VC, that pays the founders significantly more salary than their employees, is a lot less equitable compared to a bootstrapped startup funded by the founders' credit cards, or a VC funded startup that pays its founders little. In the latter cases, the founders take a lot more risk, and so their reward, should their startup succeed, would be a lot more "deserved".