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I think you can certainly reach certain levels of wealth only be selling a company you own. But, I am not sure joining a startup you don't own doesn't give you
by meterplech 16y ago
I think you can certainly reach certain levels of wealth only be selling a company you own. But, I am not sure joining a startup you don't own doesn't give you a hugely better chance of wealth. Especially if you are not one of the first 5 employees or some very high position. Let's say you have the skills to be a VP Engineering of a startup or a engineering manager at Google.
Let's be generous and say you get there after a series A and make 100k/year startup and get ~.5% ownership subject to dilution. Compared to that Google job making 175k a year plus bonus and stock options. Let's be conservative and say total compensation of 200k. In 5 years you are forgoing $500,000 + any return on asset you made. That startup has to sell for $10 million without taking any more investment for it to be worth it.
Obviously this is possible, but it's not clear which one is better off most of the time. Like the article says- do a startup if you want to do one. Not if you want to get rich. If you want to get rich go be a quant at a hedge fund.
- blacksmythe 16y agoNot to mention that if you go to work at Google, you will probably get to know multiple engineers with enough Google stock to fund a startup, and perhaps the chance to work with them at a startup they fund for more than 0.5% of the company. (My sense is that engineers that start companies better understand the value of good engineers than VCs do).
- random42 16y agoat startup has to sell for $100 million without taking any more investment for it to be worth it, which is considered a very big exit.
- ojbyrne 16y agoEric Schmidt has never started a company. He's the 129th richest person in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
- CapitalistCartr 16y agoHe doesn't say its impossible, so one example doesn't refute, or even respond to his statement. Not only is the plural of anecdote not data, neither is the singular.
- ojbyrne 16y ago"I think you can certainly reach certain levels of wealth only be selling a company you own" Only - "Alone in kind or class" Sure sounds like he said it was impossible to me.
- Goladus 16y agoEric Schmidt joined Google, early, and as the CEO. So in one sense he did join a startup. In another, a career like his is as rare as a startup founder turning into Bill Gates. Perhaps rarer.
- ojbyrne 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chambers_%28CEO%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Chambers_%28CEO%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meg_Whitman They all followed a typical path to wealth older than dotcom mania. MBA, senior management position, CEO.
- xiaoma 16y agoAnd Steve Balmer is #33, also neither a founder nor a relative of one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer
- anon12879 16y agoObviously at least quite a few people from Google seem to agree with Bindu - http://mylikes.com/team http://mylikes.com/team