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Ouch, number 2 employee at Pinterest - a $10 billion company that’s about to go public this year. He probably would have been worth an easy 100-200 million.
by sixQuarks 8y ago
Ouch, number 2 employee at Pinterest - a $10 billion company that’s about to go public this year.
He probably would have been worth an easy 100-200 million.
- sahillavingia 8y agoI prefer not to do the math.
- nemild 8y agoBased on your article, you sound pretty bad ass by having gone through the journey. I'm doubtful you'd have that by staying. It's a pretty remarkable path, and I respect you for that!
- spuderman123 8y agoMany years ago, you once mentioned that anyone who wants to build a startup should read Hacker News. I'm still here because of you. You've made an impact!
- PakG1 8y agoI can't begin to imagine what that must feel like, but I gotta say, your kind of company (i.e. non-VC-funded, don't care about the unicorn status, just serve the customers well) is the kind I'd like to do one day. The vision and values just align with me so much more than hypergrowth and whatever it takes to get there. Many hats off to you for making all the decisions you did to keep your customers first. It may not be worth much, but you have my respect forever.
- droobles 8y agoYour story speaks to my soul. I've never been too attracted to the VC-funded startup life (although I wouldn't pass it up if it was the correct move to grow my business), but reading about your commitment to your users through thick and thin gives me so much more respect for you, and that is a quality I hope to emulate someday.
- sixQuarks 8y agoHaha, sorry didn’t mean to rub it in brother. But you’re still in an incredibly fortunate situation, and it’s all about the journey anyway.
- dawhizkid 8y agoIf there a year at least vested one year of equity...?
- kickopotomus 8y agoHindsight is 20/20. A million different factors outside of your control could have led to different outcomes for both Pinterest and Gumroad. Thank you for sharing your story!
- ishjoh 8y agofor what it's worth I think you've created more value at Gumroad then you would have at Pintrest :)
- crispyporkbites 8y agoIt's crazy that you care about the money, being in your mid-20s with a company pulling in 60k USD net/month puts you squarely in the pretty much unlimited money category of the world.
- jimbokun 8y ago"It's crazy that you care about the money..." Did you read the article?
- oh_sigh 8y agoLook on the bright side - maybe Pinterest would have failed if you stayed there.
- aeriklawson 8y agoBut would you trade the amount of time spent at Pinterest before IPO with the experience you gained at Gumroad? Tough call, given the professional and personal growth you gained from it.
- Tepix 8y agoWhat's the big advantage of having 200m vs 15m or so? It's fuck-you money either way.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- shereadsthenews 8y agoPinterest is a malignant tumor on the face of the Web that exists to trick people who are trying to search for images. Being rich off that would be worse that toiling in obscurity.
- locklock 8y agoPeople actually do use Pinterest to collect images, I think, but I agree with you on the other points
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- fsloth 8y agoUh - can you elaborate? I often search for images and sometimes from pinterest - but I don't find pinterest interfering with my searches when not using it.
- rchaud 8y agoThe poster is likely referring to how Pinterest links now dominate Google image search results. Clicking on the Pinterest link takes you to the Pinterest website, and not the actual image source. Pinterest will often block you from viewing the page unless you sign in or create an account.
- puranjay 8y agoReminds me of Noah Kagan. Employee #30, I think, at Facebook. That should be what - $200M+?
- dawhizkid 8y agoYou are vastly overestimating what even an early employee (esp a jr one) gets at a unicorn. Not that it wouldn't be substantial today, but nothing close to 1-2% of the entire value of the company.
- chosenbreed37 8y ago> You are vastly overestimating what even an early employee (esp a jr one) gets at a unicorn. Not that it wouldn't be substantial today, but nothing close to 1-2% of the entire value of the company. Mmm...based on the valuation even 0.1% would equate to $10 million...not bad ;-)
- dawhizkid 8y agoyou'd probably get around .1% as an early jr person. assuming a 4 year vest period, that .1% will have been diluted to maybe .05%, so assuming a $10b valuation it comes out to $5m. Still not bad, but a far cry from $200m.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mlevental 8y agocrunchbase says pinterest has had 15 funding rounds. certainly they weren't all complete rounds and it would've been nice equity but nowhere near the nominal 1-2% early employees get.
- austenallred 8y agoProbably a fraction of that. Dilution etc. My guess is he’ll make more from Gumroad over the long run.
- the_cat_kittles 8y agowho gives a fuck. i wish people would say this more, especially on this site. stop worshiping money. why am i saying this here, on what is a 50% get rich quick scheme site? i dont know... i somehow enjoy the downvotes. if you offered me 200 million to throw away a couple years of my life at pintrest, the thrill of saying "no" would far outweigh the benefit of being a sellout. only do stuff that is cool on its merits if you can possibly manage to. im sure almost no one here agrees with that but i find it cathartic to shout it at deaf ears.
- galfarragem 8y agoParaphrasing (probably Nietzsche): "There are only 3 kinds of people: the poor that wants to be rich, the rich that wants to continue being rich and the idealist, that using his ideals wants to be rich."
- sctb 8y agoWe've asked you many times to please stop breaking the guidelines, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll start posting civilly and substantively. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- the_cat_kittles 8y agono thanks