3 ms·
I'd really like to know this since none of the startups I've been involved with have had positive outcomes (buy out, IPO, merger etc). If you're part of the 10
by gacba 16y ago
I'd really like to know this since none of the startups I've been involved with have had positive outcomes (buy out, IPO, merger etc).
If you're part of the 10-20% employee ownership, assuming that you have an "average" stake, what percentage of the overall deal do you usually walk away with?
I'm expecting this number to be painfully small and hardly f#ck you money, but I'd like to hear from those who have direct experience on this.
NOTE: I'm not asking about founder exits, because those are adequately covered in the media and other places. I want to know about all the folks who are in that magic 10-20% of employees. Outlier anecdotal evidence (e.g. Google secretaries, Microsoft mail room folks) need not be mentioned. :)
- 3pt14159 16y agoIf you are one of their favored employees (multiple bonuses of additional options) and you got in before they hit 50 people you can expect about 0.1-0.3%. I know employee 1000 at Google walked away with about $2 million.
- mattew 16y agoThe answer is, "it depends". It depends on how the companies investments are structured. For example, if a VC on the A round has a 2x or more liquidation preference, that can change the distributions significantly. There could also be phantom stock agreements, warrants, notes of various values, etc, that can make a large difference.
- sbov 16y agoI was involved in a buyout of a small (~15-20 people) company and the average stake was around 3%, but we had no outside funding at all. It didn't end in FU money (it was a "small" exit when compared to VC backed exits), but its enough to completely pay for retirement someday.