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Based on the revenue and growth rates of Gumroad my guess is Sahil will make more money from it than he would have at Pinterest. It will take longer but it will
by austenallred 8y ago
Based on the revenue and growth rates of Gumroad my guess is Sahil will make more money from it than he would have at Pinterest. It will take longer but it will be on his terms.
- eanzenberg 8y agoHow is that even remotely possible, unless he got no equity in pinterest? They are ~10b IPO'ing this year. Even 1 basis point of pinterest is worth more than what Gumroad brought in.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- austenallred 8y agoHe owns the majority of Gumroad. Let’s say he had 100 basis points of Pinterest, call it 50% dilution, he’d walk away with $50m. That’s probably very generous, probably actually closer to $20m. Gumroad will be worth that in a few years at this rate, and he could cash million dollar paychecks along the way if he wanted.
- frtcike89 8y agoSo he'll be worth $50M in a few years with Gumroad. Meanwhile his original investors lost all the millions they invested. His employees lost all the time and vesting. Ouch. That's why it's way to dangerous to just follow any guy and do a startup and waste a few years of your life.
- austenallred 8y ago> So he'll be worth $50M in a few years with Gumroad. That's my best guess, yes. > Meanwhile his investors lost all the millions they invested. Well, some sold his equity back to him for $1, so yes. > His employees lost all the time and vesting. Well the employees could have exercised their grants when they were laid off, but I doubt they were inclined to double down on what was then a failing company. > That's why it's way to dangerous to just follow any guy and do a startup and waste a few years of your life. I mean, the employees got paid all along the way, and probably not that much less (if any) than they would have working for another company, and they got to work on something they loved. Sad that it didn't work out. These things are risky, but having worked at startups and not gained anything from the equity I would do it again in a heartbeat.
- wolco 8y agoThe employees got paid less because of vesting. It is a gamble and this story shows different outcomes for employees. Pinterest paided off and gumtree didn't. In both cases the founder made between 20-50 million.
- austenallred 8y agoBoth employees and founders vest. Founders own more of the company than employees, of course. The good news is anyone can start a company!
- wolco 8y agoAgreed but if you choose to be an employee opt for higher salary over vested future value for better game theory results.
- austenallred 8y agoUnless the company is successful, in which case you should do the opposite
- numair 8y agoActually, his employees got a ton of experience building systems and processes the “hard way,” from ground zero at a startup. This inevitably made them more attractive to whomever they decided to work with afterward — startup, large company, whatever — especially as they were let go into a frenzy of hiring by other firms. And if, God forbid, they wanted to start their own company and waste a few more years of their life (your words, not mine!), well... Everything is easier when you’ve seen someone else do it.
- brandnewlow 8y ago1 basis point of $10b is $1m. It's pretty easy to see someone paying him well over that to buy GumRoad at some point.
- csa 8y agoI will guess that as employee #2, he had more than 1 basis point.
- nathan_f77 8y agoYeah, I think employee #2 would be in the range of 50 - 300 basis points. (0.5% - 3%)