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A few things, though it's hard without much info (re: revenue/growth). Regardless: 1. A $14m sale is a huuuge win. You'd be set for life. A 100% likelihood of
by austenallred 9y ago
A few things, though it's hard without much info (re: revenue/growth).
Regardless:
1. A $14m sale is a huuuge win. You'd be set for life. A 100% likelihood of $14m is something that is difficult to turn down in almost any scenario. Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet?
Let's say you take the $14m. Your life would (presumably) change drastically. That's "pay yourself $750k/yr without ever working again" level financial stability. (OK, some of it depends on taxes, but regardless...) If you raise VC, who knows what could happen in the next 5 years? IMO take it if you can.
2. If you want to go bigger, SV isn't the only way to do it. If you have revenue you could potentially raise debt. Hard to do, but perhaps worth it in your scenario.
3. If getting warm introductions is hard, just know that actually raising will be much harder.
- macspoofing 9y ago> A $14m sale is a huuuge win. OP hasn't mentioned the current ownership structure. It may or may not be a huge win.
- nols 9y agoIt's a team of people, so the $14MM wouldn't all go to a single person. It's certainly a lot of money, but it may not be retire in comfort money.
- dawnerd 9y agoEven if it's a small team and everyone gets an equal split (unlikely), that's still a ton of cash. I'd take it, move somewhere cheap and just work on personal projects for the rest of my life and not worry about trying to please shareholders.
- marcofiset 9y agoDepends on your definition of comfort. I sure would be comfortable for life with such an amount of money, even if I would be left with "only" 2M.
- chasd00 9y agoPlus, a nice big chunk of it is going to Uncle Sam too. Let's say a 5 person team and they each end up with $2M in their checking account. Invested safely the returns match a typical Sr. working stiff salary. Sure you don't have to work, but you're not driving a Ferrari to your jet that's for sure.
- charlesdm 9y agoBad assumption. Just because it's a team of people doesn't necessarily mean there is more than one shareholder. You can have one founder, and a few founding employees. Not everyone shares equity in a startup (at least outside of SV), and this is fine.
- austenallred 9y agoI'm assuming based on the way OP posted he or she owns 100%. If it's split two ways, I'd still take it. 5 or 6 ways? Then that changes the conversation.
- KGIII 9y agoAlso, if it is split multiple ways then the decision probably isn't entirely up to the OP.
- jonnathanson 9y ago"Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet?" I know you're kidding around here, but all kidding aside, whether your net worth is $14M or $50M, you can't afford a jet. (I mean, nominally speaking, you can front the sticker price -- but you'll get eaten alive on fuel and maintenance over the jet's useful lifespan, and the jet as an asset is depreciating all the while.) I say this almost as a reflex. I used to work in talent management many lifetimes ago, and I'd actually find myself having this talk with people in this specific situation. Explaining to someone who just made $10M on a single movie that s/he can't afford a jet is a surreal experience. Sorry for the tangent!
- mrfusion 9y agoWould a small helicopter make more sense?
- secondmod 9y agoWill bunch of Cessnas do? 50k to 150k per plane https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/Cessna-172 https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/Cessna-172
- kevan 9y agoYou don't even need a $500k net worth to afford a Cessna. Most guys I know that have them are firmly middle class. They have to make some compromises on houses and cars, but it's worth it to them because they love to fly.
- lphnull 9y agobrb, launching cesna uber startup for rich folk.
- JoeMalt 9y agoSomebody was asking about this on Reddit (/r/flying I think) a few months back. Short answer is that the FAA does not take kindly to receiving payment if you don't have a commercial license, and if you do then there's better work out there than Uber-for-cessnas.
- mason55 9y ago> your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet? No one is buying a jet with a $14mm sale
- goseeastarwar 9y ago+1 I think people don't recognize how "little" money you need to replicate a big salary. 14M at 3% is $420k/yr. And as long as you don't spend every last dollar, that number keeps going up...forever. Build whatever you want at that point.
- bilbobagends 9y agoFirst, a sale of $14M doesn't get you $14 - you'd get less than 10 - best case. Second, your after inflation return in the current environment may be quite ugly - $300K or $400K a year will not feel rich in any east or west coast city.
- sokoloff 9y agoDisagree. $300K/yr with $10MM in the bank will absolutely feel rich. The reason people with $300K household incomes in Boston/NYC/Silicon Valley don't feel rich is because out of that $300K, they're buying housing and saving for retirement/college/rainy day. Take that away, and $300K spendable is a fairly luxurious lifestyle.
- bilbobagends 9y agoI suppose it depends on what feels rich. The kinds of places you go when you are actually rich cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a day, and they have shops where most of the stuff costs tens or hundreds of thousands, and everyone around you is carrying, flying, driving, or sailing things that cost hundreds of thousands or millions.No one I know who makes 300K (after tax) - unless they have a net worth that is in the 10s of millions - feels rich.
- dasil003 9y agoThere's a huge difference between $300k/year and $300k/year with 7 figures in the bank. The latter means you can afford a down payment on decent property anywhere, which means you are actually making an investment instead of pissing everything away on rent. If you don't feel rich at that point you need to get your head straight. Obviously there is always someone richer, but you are deep deep into the 1% of the richest country in the world and you need to be thinking about your greater life's purpose.
- Vadoff 9y ago$14-50 is not private jet/private yacht type of lifestyles... you can rent/ride in one sure. But owning one is another story.