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First YC company to go public. Congrats everyone!
by kayhi 9y ago
First YC company to go public. Congrats everyone!
- dawhizkid 9y agoWow didn't realize it was the first...not sure if that's more depressing than exciting tbh!
- ISL 9y agoBuild a company to build a company, not to IPO.
- dawhizkid 9y agoAs a founder do you not feel some responsibility to eventually provide liquidity to your investors and the employees that helped build your co?
- econner 9y agoBut, structure the comp so that all of your early employees & people in the trenches only get paid if you IPO. Then get mad when those same employees openly wonder if and when you are going to IPO.
- travisjungroth 9y agoAn exit (IPO or acquisition) is the goal of a VC backed startup. If you want to build a company to build a company, do it a different way (debt, savings, bootstrap, investors).
- redwood 9y agoTerrible way of looking at it. Perhaps for investors, sure, but not for employees
- tylersmith 9y agoWho cares? They're replaceable cogs that shouldn't expect anything but wages.
- travisjungroth 9y agoI don't think it's a terrible way to look at it, I think it's reality. I say this as a new employee of a YC startup-turned-unicorn. Yes, we have a mission as a company. I happen to believe in that mission. I also know that we have made a lot of obligations (investments, options as compensation) that make an exit important, too.
- Myrmornis 9y agoThen don’t claim options are part of total comp while denying people the ability to hold on to options when they leave the company.
- fs111 9y agoBuild a company to sell it to a big player and get $$$$$.
- adamnemecek 9y agoYC was founded in 2005. So yeah, it took dropbox a while but that seems to be the norm these days.