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The VCs wound up paying him, reportedly, over $7 million for his shares. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2002/03/equity-notes-arsdigita-

• neilv 4y ago
  That article: > gave Ferraris to employees who recruited 10 programmers, I might be misremembering from when that was first promoted, but I though it was a year's use of a Ferrari (a Spider or similar). > Greenspun defends those expenditures as inexpensive ways to retain and attract talent. He also writes that it created the impression of a wildly successful company. At the time, it seemed a little indulgent. Like all the fresh startups that would buy Aeron chairs for everyone, and have expensive launch parties. But in hindsight... How else were you going to get MIT grads to feel like they were in on the dotcom boom, when they were working as TCL programmers in gloomy Cambridge? (Rather than move to the sunny SF Bay Area, where most of the action seemed to be happening, and where most of their friends were moving.)
  • rst 4y ago
    I recall more like a month. There was only one Ferrari, mostly parked in the company lot.
    • neilv 4y ago
      Yeah, and a month sounds more likely than a year. In any case, the article seemed to overstate it, and overall was kinda harsh.
• wmf 4y ago
  Ironically if he never took VC and remained in charge he may have ridden the company all the way down to zero during the dotcom crash, leaving him with little or nothing.