8 ms·

Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition?

98 points by seattle_spring 10y ago

As the title said-- I'm just curious how the rank and file employees and engineers fared with the acquisition.

MsABalakrishnan 10y ago
For what it's worth, I wrote that viral article about the Jet content winner (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-probably-made-a-killing-on-the-wal-mart-jetcom-deal.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-probabl...) and afterward, Jet pretty seriously clamped down on who would talk to me. I would love to talk to Jet employees anonymously about how it all went down! It was super interesting.
LaurenceW1 10y ago
Just fine... Disclaimer: I work there.
- justanotheratom 10y ago
  Is the use of F# intact?
  - LaurenceW1 10y ago
    yep
    - busterarm 10y ago
      You hiring? :D
      - qmarchi 10y ago
        Plenty of positions open at Corporate. Might need to move to Bentonville.
      - throwaway_jet 10y ago
        Yes. I've been at Jet since 6 months before launch and now is as exciting a time as any to be at Jet.
- seattle_spring 10y ago
  What does "just fine" mean to you? Some engineers would think $100k over 4 years is a great acquisition; some would find it insulting.
- ryanSrich 10y ago
  Got a number you can throw out? Are early employees millionaires now? Or just hundred-thousandaires? $3BN is quite a lot of money.
  - strmpnk 10y ago
    There were SEC filings and some early employees have clear numbers there. Yes, there were some millionaires. Not a huge number of them but at the time of the acquisition, the average tenure of an employee was under a year because of the fast growth rate. Disclosure, I was and still am at Jet. I won't throw my numbers out but I will say it is bellow the million line but also under a year of time pre-acquisition.
- qmarchi 10y ago
  How's the weather out there? Disclaimer: I'm in Bentonville.
markwaldron 10y ago
I work about 3 blocks down the road from them in Hoboken, and I've seen an influx of nicer cars in the area. Not sure if there is a correlation between the two.
- pvitz 10y ago
  Or a causal connection ;)
wyc 10y ago
From my understanding, the Jet.com deal was more of an acquihire to get Marc Lore to work for walmart.com[1]. The Jet.com numbers didn't look good at all, and they were rapidly burning through capital. Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency (nothing wrong with that), so it saw an opportunity to grow into the digital space through this acquisition. This leads me to think that everyone from the company is likely in golden cuffs. [1] see the subtle language that suggests Lore will be working on walmart.com: http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-jetcom/ http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-jetcom/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- qaq 10y ago
  So the whole walmart labs thing doesn't count?
  - was_boring 10y ago
    Sometimes that knowledge doesn't trickle out due to a variety of political reasons. A fresh face, with the blessing of senior management, can make a solid impact. Not saying this is what happened, and I greatly respect Walmart labs, especially the electrode project.
  - verelo 10y ago
    As someone who has tried to work with them, I'd say no it doesn't. They are not responsive, very slow to do anything and frankly are more of a product API than a real innovation team. I'd love to see more from this group, I'd love to see them engage with the people in the labs forum more!
    - qmarchi 10y ago
      I'm curious to know what you were trying to reach out about. That team is massive (they have their own floor).
sk5t 10y ago
Although not apropos to the question posed, I'd like to share that my recent, first (and final) attempt to buy something from jet.com went about as poorly as it could have, given that I ordered a readily-available monitor, and it took Jet a full week to arrive at the conclusion that they could not actually procure/sell it to me. Rather pathetic.
swingbridge 10y ago
From what I was told employees did well but not anywhere nearly as well as some of the numbers that had been initially tossed around (e.g. In regards to the contest winner that got options for signing people up). There were a lot of people that had to get paid before the employees got their cut. That said no matter how you slice it, it was an impressive deal considering the company itself was burning cash like crazy and failing badly on their original mission of going head to head with Amazon. Well done to the team there. Only time will tell if saving Jet was ultimately a good move for WalMart.
princetontiger 10y ago
I know a person who works there, and he has never mentioned it once. I presume if it was F-U money, there would be some conspicuous consumption. He joined a year before the acquisition.
- up_and_up 10y ago
  A year before an exit prob means they only vested like 25% percent of their options. At that stage they were prob pretty expensive options and highly diluted. Options are not much good if they are not vested and priced too high.
  - harryh 10y ago
    Typically when a company is acquired unvested employee options are converted into options in the acquiring company's stock. So in this example the employee in question would just have to work another three years to realize the gains (just as he would have had to do otherwise).
djb_hackernews 10y ago
IIRC, Jet was handing out equity in lots in order to hide the percentage of equity granted. This typically means a) They want to hide how little piece of the pie you are getting b) They are going to do further shady stuff like reverse splits, clawbacks, etc Edit: The employee in this thread is still working so not FU money. Maybe "FU for a year while I travel the world" money.

As the title said-- I'm just curious how the rank and file employees and engineers fared with the acquisition.

For what it's worth, I wrote that viral article about the Jet content winner (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-probably-made-a-killing-on-the-wal-mart-jetcom-deal.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-probabl...) and afterward, Jet pretty seriously clamped down on who would talk to me. I would love to talk to Jet employees anonymously about how it all went down! It was super interesting.

LaurenceW1 10y ago

Just fine... Disclaimer: I work there.

justanotheratom 10y ago
Is the use of F# intact?
- LaurenceW1 10y ago
  yep
  - busterarm 10y ago
    You hiring? :D
    - qmarchi 10y ago
      Plenty of positions open at Corporate. Might need to move to Bentonville.
    - throwaway_jet 10y ago
      Yes. I've been at Jet since 6 months before launch and now is as exciting a time as any to be at Jet.
seattle_spring 10y ago
What does "just fine" mean to you? Some engineers would think $100k over 4 years is a great acquisition; some would find it insulting.
ryanSrich 10y ago
Got a number you can throw out? Are early employees millionaires now? Or just hundred-thousandaires? $3BN is quite a lot of money.
- strmpnk 10y ago
  There were SEC filings and some early employees have clear numbers there. Yes, there were some millionaires. Not a huge number of them but at the time of the acquisition, the average tenure of an employee was under a year because of the fast growth rate. Disclosure, I was and still am at Jet. I won't throw my numbers out but I will say it is bellow the million line but also under a year of time pre-acquisition.
qmarchi 10y ago
How's the weather out there? Disclaimer: I'm in Bentonville.

markwaldron 10y ago

I work about 3 blocks down the road from them in Hoboken, and I've seen an influx of nicer cars in the area. Not sure if there is a correlation between the two.

pvitz 10y ago
Or a causal connection ;)

wyc 10y ago

From my understanding, the Jet.com deal was more of an acquihire to get Marc Lore to work for walmart.com[1]. The Jet.com numbers didn't look good at all, and they were rapidly burning through capital. Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency (nothing wrong with that), so it saw an opportunity to grow into the digital space through this acquisition. This leads me to think that everyone from the company is likely in golden cuffs. [1] see the subtle language that suggests Lore will be working on walmart.com: http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-jetcom/ http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-jetcom/

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
qaq 10y ago
So the whole walmart labs thing doesn't count?
- was_boring 10y ago
  Sometimes that knowledge doesn't trickle out due to a variety of political reasons. A fresh face, with the blessing of senior management, can make a solid impact. Not saying this is what happened, and I greatly respect Walmart labs, especially the electrode project.
- verelo 10y ago
  As someone who has tried to work with them, I'd say no it doesn't. They are not responsive, very slow to do anything and frankly are more of a product API than a real innovation team. I'd love to see more from this group, I'd love to see them engage with the people in the labs forum more!
  - qmarchi 10y ago
    I'm curious to know what you were trying to reach out about. That team is massive (they have their own floor).

sk5t 10y ago

Although not apropos to the question posed, I'd like to share that my recent, first (and final) attempt to buy something from jet.com went about as poorly as it could have, given that I ordered a readily-available monitor, and it took Jet a full week to arrive at the conclusion that they could not actually procure/sell it to me. Rather pathetic.

swingbridge 10y ago

From what I was told employees did well but not anywhere nearly as well as some of the numbers that had been initially tossed around (e.g. In regards to the contest winner that got options for signing people up). There were a lot of people that had to get paid before the employees got their cut. That said no matter how you slice it, it was an impressive deal considering the company itself was burning cash like crazy and failing badly on their original mission of going head to head with Amazon. Well done to the team there. Only time will tell if saving Jet was ultimately a good move for WalMart.

princetontiger 10y ago

I know a person who works there, and he has never mentioned it once. I presume if it was F-U money, there would be some conspicuous consumption. He joined a year before the acquisition.

up_and_up 10y ago
A year before an exit prob means they only vested like 25% percent of their options. At that stage they were prob pretty expensive options and highly diluted. Options are not much good if they are not vested and priced too high.
- harryh 10y ago
  Typically when a company is acquired unvested employee options are converted into options in the acquiring company's stock. So in this example the employee in question would just have to work another three years to realize the gains (just as he would have had to do otherwise).

djb_hackernews 10y ago

IIRC, Jet was handing out equity in lots in order to hide the percentage of equity granted. This typically means a) They want to hide how little piece of the pie you are getting b) They are going to do further shady stuff like reverse splits, clawbacks, etc Edit: The employee in this thread is still working so not FU money. Maybe "FU for a year while I travel the world" money.