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Wow didn't realize it was the first...not sure if that's more depressing than exciting tbh!
by dawhizkid 9y ago
Wow 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.