8 ms·

Seems like they didn't know when to leave. Once they sold it was no longer their baby and should have started working on an exit strategy. It becomes a contest

Seems like they didn't know when to leave. Once they sold it was no longer their baby and should have started working on an exit strategy. It becomes a contest of egos. On the technical side, FB's methodology with acquisitions seemed the most rational. Rather than sucking the new company in they embedded PE's in there for the purpose of giving the tech teams a fast track to using FB resources.

tyingq 8y ago
It's a little over 6 years elapsed. Maybe they had to wait out some vesting?
- krn1p4n1c 8y ago
  I'm sure. Everyone has to do the 4yr slog, but founders usually write in a parachute clause. I hope they stuck around to make sure their original team was taken care of, but it's naive to think they'd have C-level control at the parent company after acquisition.
billmalarky 8y ago
To be fair, they also had $700 MM in FB stock (now worth $4b according to the article), so there was incentive to help instagram succeed at FB.
- kbenson 8y ago
  I've always wondered about this. How much inventive is that? When the person thinks "if I work really hard and this, I'll increase my huge pool of money from an amount I can't easily spend given the rest of my life to an amount almost six times as much!", does that really resonate? It's not like it's the same as $700 to $4,000, or even from $7,000,000 to $40,000,000. There are things you can buy to spend most of those amounts, but those are things it's not really worth buying multiple of (e.g. houses, super yachts), so at the point you have close to a billion dollars, what does another billion buy you, besides bragging rights? I imagine there's some impetus to stick around because you want to see what you built succeed, but at some point I imagine you realize it's not really yours anymore, so why not leave and do what you want, instead of what other people want you to do? I mean, you literally have "fuck you" money.
  - eldavido 8y ago
    I'm not that rich. That said, two thoughts. First, money at at level isn't earned to spend -- you're right about this. It's more a way of signaling status. Someone getting paid $30 million is less important than someone getting paid $40 million at the same company. This comes up a lot in athletics, too. It establishes your location in the pecking order, which is important in any hierarchical organization. You have to know who's boss. Second, I think money can be a basis for talent competition. If one company offers $5mil/year and another offers $10mil, you'll probably take the $10 over the $5. Not that it will actually make a difference in your life, but just because it's 2x as much. Perhaps not everyone would make that choice and I think at those levels of wealth, it becomes quite a personal, idiosyncratic decision. But it does get hard to turn down. Just some thoughts from a guy who isn't that rich.
  - JacobDotVI 8y ago
    I'm not sure about the psychology of incentives angle, but this old post from reddit shows the monumental difference in wealth between $700M and $4B: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_insanely_wealthy_people_buy_that_ordinary/cnnmca8/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_i...
    - konschubert 8y ago
      The sibling comment cites from this post.
    - beenBoutIT 8y ago
      Reddit's unfriendly block-everything popup reminder for National Voter Registration Day got me wondering, does anyone know how effective these types of popups are? The less-obtrusive popups that allow you to still see whatever you came to the site for seem better IMO, but I'm curious if they're less effective.
  - dionidium 8y ago
    > but those are things it's not really worth buying multiple of (e.g. houses, super yachts) Don't think consumer goods. Think: * own and run a professional sports team * spearhead a transit project in your hometown * build 100 libraries with your name on them * influence politics for a generation * fund the cure for the rare disease that killed your mother If all you can think to do with a few billion extra dollars is buy more consumer goods, you're not using your imagination.

tyingq 8y ago

It's a little over 6 years elapsed. Maybe they had to wait out some vesting?

krn1p4n1c 8y ago
I'm sure. Everyone has to do the 4yr slog, but founders usually write in a parachute clause. I hope they stuck around to make sure their original team was taken care of, but it's naive to think they'd have C-level control at the parent company after acquisition.

billmalarky 8y ago

To be fair, they also had $700 MM in FB stock (now worth $4b according to the article), so there was incentive to help instagram succeed at FB.

kbenson 8y ago
I've always wondered about this. How much inventive is that? When the person thinks "if I work really hard and this, I'll increase my huge pool of money from an amount I can't easily spend given the rest of my life to an amount almost six times as much!", does that really resonate? It's not like it's the same as $700 to $4,000, or even from $7,000,000 to $40,000,000. There are things you can buy to spend most of those amounts, but those are things it's not really worth buying multiple of (e.g. houses, super yachts), so at the point you have close to a billion dollars, what does another billion buy you, besides bragging rights? I imagine there's some impetus to stick around because you want to see what you built succeed, but at some point I imagine you realize it's not really yours anymore, so why not leave and do what you want, instead of what other people want you to do? I mean, you literally have "fuck you" money.
- eldavido 8y ago
  I'm not that rich. That said, two thoughts. First, money at at level isn't earned to spend -- you're right about this. It's more a way of signaling status. Someone getting paid $30 million is less important than someone getting paid $40 million at the same company. This comes up a lot in athletics, too. It establishes your location in the pecking order, which is important in any hierarchical organization. You have to know who's boss. Second, I think money can be a basis for talent competition. If one company offers $5mil/year and another offers $10mil, you'll probably take the $10 over the $5. Not that it will actually make a difference in your life, but just because it's 2x as much. Perhaps not everyone would make that choice and I think at those levels of wealth, it becomes quite a personal, idiosyncratic decision. But it does get hard to turn down. Just some thoughts from a guy who isn't that rich.
- JacobDotVI 8y ago
  I'm not sure about the psychology of incentives angle, but this old post from reddit shows the monumental difference in wealth between $700M and $4B: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_insanely_wealthy_people_buy_that_ordinary/cnnmca8/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2s9u0s/what_do_i...
  - konschubert 8y ago
    The sibling comment cites from this post.
  - beenBoutIT 8y ago
    Reddit's unfriendly block-everything popup reminder for National Voter Registration Day got me wondering, does anyone know how effective these types of popups are? The less-obtrusive popups that allow you to still see whatever you came to the site for seem better IMO, but I'm curious if they're less effective.
- dionidium 8y ago
  > but those are things it's not really worth buying multiple of (e.g. houses, super yachts) Don't think consumer goods. Think: * own and run a professional sports team * spearhead a transit project in your hometown * build 100 libraries with your name on them * influence politics for a generation * fund the cure for the rare disease that killed your mother If all you can think to do with a few billion extra dollars is buy more consumer goods, you're not using your imagination.