4 ms·

What percentage of the revenue derived from an employee's labor would he receive, in an ideal world? The correct answer to this is probably something between 30

What percentage of the revenue derived from an employee's labor would he receive, in an ideal world? The correct answer to this is probably something between 30 and 70 percent, depending on a variety of factors. The real-world answer to this is "however little we can possibly share, because we want to hoard it all for ourselves", and personally I find that to be a distasteful reality (I find most investors' justifications for their wealth very hollow, they usually all boil back down to "well, I started with more money than them"). Employees have way undersold themselves; I think objectively, most professional employees would probably still be quite profitable to the company if their salaries were quadrupled. And to answer a likely-reflex response to this, yes, I have run companies with employees before. Considering that founders are making themselves fabulously wealthy on the backs of their employees, I think we'd all appreciate a little bit more respect than you're showing when you poo-poo employees who want something more closely approximating 1/4 of the share they actually deserve.

swombat 10y ago
I'm not fabulously wealthy, nor do I expect to get so from GrantTree. Yes, I am fairly well off at this point, able to buy (jointly with my wife) a small 2-bed flat in an ex-council flat in London - that's after spending 5.5 years starting a business that has raised over £35m of government funding for 600 UK startups and employs 27 people. If you think that's fabulous wealth, you have a different definition of it than I have. Yes, the business is technically worth a pile of cash (we're about to do a valuation for the purpose of issuing shares to employees so I don't know yet exactly how much), but we're not planning to sell the business so that can only be realised through long-term survival and success of the company. The team has themselves set a target for wages to 40% of revenues, in line with your suggestion. I would have set it higher (and in fact right now our wage bill is closer to 60%) but that was not my decision to make. The 40-60% is of course not evenly distributed, though I would also quite like the thought of that, but the team themselves decide how to allocate it, so I guess they're doing the best they can. I find the reality you perceive distasteful too - and I agree that it is widespread and it is sad that that is so.

swombat 10y ago

I'm not fabulously wealthy, nor do I expect to get so from GrantTree. Yes, I am fairly well off at this point, able to buy (jointly with my wife) a small 2-bed flat in an ex-council flat in London - that's after spending 5.5 years starting a business that has raised over £35m of government funding for 600 UK startups and employs 27 people. If you think that's fabulous wealth, you have a different definition of it than I have. Yes, the business is technically worth a pile of cash (we're about to do a valuation for the purpose of issuing shares to employees so I don't know yet exactly how much), but we're not planning to sell the business so that can only be realised through long-term survival and success of the company. The team has themselves set a target for wages to 40% of revenues, in line with your suggestion. I would have set it higher (and in fact right now our wage bill is closer to 60%) but that was not my decision to make. The 40-60% is of course not evenly distributed, though I would also quite like the thought of that, but the team themselves decide how to allocate it, so I guess they're doing the best they can. I find the reality you perceive distasteful too - and I agree that it is widespread and it is sad that that is so.