8 ms·

I think the Twitter IPO is very good for startups. The wealth event for a lot of employees unlocks a pool of talented employees who are flush with experience, r

by chaz 13y ago

I think the Twitter IPO is very good for startups. The wealth event for a lot of employees unlocks a pool of talented employees who are flush with experience, ready to take on new challenges, and armed with a network. A bit of money in the pocket is that they're less dependent upon short-term income and are willing to take on a fair amount of risk and more focused on long-term goals. Many will start a new company or join as an early/senior employee at a fast growing one. Some of them will go on to be angel investors and VCs. Some will just drive Porsches and play golf. This cycle has renewed itself many times in the Bay Area, with recent examples likes Nescape, eBay, PayPal, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I feel this refertilization is not nearly as strong in many other cities like NYC.

crassus 13y ago
Unfortunately, for every thousand new tech millionaires there is maybe 1 or 2 that is doing anything interesting or daring with their money. The energetic give it away to charity, the lazy park it in an investment fund. Few are the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels.
- onedev 13y ago
  Few make nearly as much as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to have nearly even close to as much impact.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    What are the Instagram folks doing with their cash? Did they not net more than Musk and Thiel from their sale?
    - jamesaguilar 13y ago
      It's been like a year and a half. Maybe cut them a little slack.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
      - StavrosK 13y ago
        I directly blame the Instagram guys for this lack of jetpack on my back.
        toomuchtodo 13y ago
        I get your point. Are we allowed to judge based on how someone uses their windfall? I absolutely hate to bring up Elon Musk here, because of the fanboism (also, I admit, I'm a huge Elon fan. I've put my entire net worth behind Tesla and Solar City.), but the guy gets shit done. He's on par with Larry Ellison, Larry and Sergey, etc. Ellison buys Hawaiin islands and owns a sailing team, Larry and Sergey try to some extent (self-driving cars, calico, glass), but Elon? He's fucking ruthless at getting shit done, even at the cost of his marriage and personal relationships (i.e. Martin Eberhard). I wish I started sooner, and was on the wealth climb Warren Buffet had been on. Unlike him though, I wouldn't donate to the Gates Foundation though. I'd call Elon and ask, "How much faster can we get to Mars?" </rant>
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
larrys 13y ago
"The wealth event for a lot of employees unlocks a pool of talented employees who are flush with experience, ready to take on new challenges, and armed with a network." So essentially the "good" people leave and you end up with a gutted company lacking the most important people that made it special in the first place.
- hnriot 13y ago
  there isn't anything special about twitter. It's the people that use it that give it value. your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but the value of twitter has more to do with the users than the tech behind it.
  - benjamincburns 13y ago
    >your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but... I'm going to be nice and just assume that you're so completely surrounded by competent and successful people that you overestimate the capability of "your average programmer" and underestimate the difficulty which Twitter's variety of "some scale issues" would pose to "your average programmer." The community is the externally visible thing which gives Twitter value, but that community wouldn't exist without some really awesome technology providing it the capability to exist.
    - ArtDev 13y ago
      The point is, the original technology is not special at all. Its about branding, name recognition and value. That is why Twitter is not overpriced at all. Neither is Facebook and that website sucks :)
      - benjamincburns 13y ago
        No, the point is that the original technology is incredibly special, but the simplicity of the service and the "big data" boom it helped create makes it all look insignificant in hindsight. I challenge you to go set up a twitter clone using only software which existed in, say, 2008 or earlier, or software which you write 100% yourself. To test it, rent a small swarm of AWS servers and get 10,000 fuzzing clients to hammer on the thing. Should be a fun weekend project, right? I agree with the sentiments about the brand and the community, but anyone who thinks that just magically appeared like it was some inevitable fatalistic force of history is dead wrong. It took a ridiculous amount of ridiculously hard work by ridiculously smart people. And if anything the fact that I have to point this out is a testament to how excellent and valuable their work really is.

by chaz 13y ago

crassus 13y ago

Unfortunately, for every thousand new tech millionaires there is maybe 1 or 2 that is doing anything interesting or daring with their money. The energetic give it away to charity, the lazy park it in an investment fund. Few are the Elon Musks and Peter Thiels.

onedev 13y ago
Few make nearly as much as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to have nearly even close to as much impact.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  What are the Instagram folks doing with their cash? Did they not net more than Musk and Thiel from their sale?
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    It's been like a year and a half. Maybe cut them a little slack.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - StavrosK 13y ago
      I directly blame the Instagram guys for this lack of jetpack on my back.
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        I get your point. Are we allowed to judge based on how someone uses their windfall? I absolutely hate to bring up Elon Musk here, because of the fanboism (also, I admit, I'm a huge Elon fan. I've put my entire net worth behind Tesla and Solar City.), but the guy gets shit done. He's on par with Larry Ellison, Larry and Sergey, etc. Ellison buys Hawaiin islands and owns a sailing team, Larry and Sergey try to some extent (self-driving cars, calico, glass), but Elon? He's fucking ruthless at getting shit done, even at the cost of his marriage and personal relationships (i.e. Martin Eberhard). I wish I started sooner, and was on the wealth climb Warren Buffet had been on. Unlike him though, I wouldn't donate to the Gates Foundation though. I'd call Elon and ask, "How much faster can we get to Mars?" </rant>

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

larrys 13y ago

"The wealth event for a lot of employees unlocks a pool of talented employees who are flush with experience, ready to take on new challenges, and armed with a network." So essentially the "good" people leave and you end up with a gutted company lacking the most important people that made it special in the first place.

hnriot 13y ago
there isn't anything special about twitter. It's the people that use it that give it value. your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but the value of twitter has more to do with the users than the tech behind it.
- benjamincburns 13y ago
  >your average programmer could build twitter. obviously there are some scale issues, but... I'm going to be nice and just assume that you're so completely surrounded by competent and successful people that you overestimate the capability of "your average programmer" and underestimate the difficulty which Twitter's variety of "some scale issues" would pose to "your average programmer." The community is the externally visible thing which gives Twitter value, but that community wouldn't exist without some really awesome technology providing it the capability to exist.
  - ArtDev 13y ago
    The point is, the original technology is not special at all. Its about branding, name recognition and value. That is why Twitter is not overpriced at all. Neither is Facebook and that website sucks :)
    - benjamincburns 13y ago
      No, the point is that the original technology is incredibly special, but the simplicity of the service and the "big data" boom it helped create makes it all look insignificant in hindsight. I challenge you to go set up a twitter clone using only software which existed in, say, 2008 or earlier, or software which you write 100% yourself. To test it, rent a small swarm of AWS servers and get 10,000 fuzzing clients to hammer on the thing. Should be a fun weekend project, right? I agree with the sentiments about the brand and the community, but anyone who thinks that just magically appeared like it was some inevitable fatalistic force of history is dead wrong. It took a ridiculous amount of ridiculously hard work by ridiculously smart people. And if anything the fact that I have to point this out is a testament to how excellent and valuable their work really is.