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Ask HN: How did Steve Ballmer get 8% when he joined Microsoft?
He was employee #30. I'm just wondering why he was given so much?
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer
- hindsightbias 12y agoFOB, smarter than Bill, and probably the only guy who'd taken an MBA class.
- brudgers 12y agoWhat Ballmer brought to Microsoft was a different skill set. It was no more about an MBA class or two than it was about the CS classes Gates took during his year at Harvard. Running a business was something that interested Ballmer analogous to Gates interest in programming. Diversifying the skill set of the core team was probably a key factor in Microsoft's successful growth over the next three decades
- CyberFonic 12y agoBack then MS was a tiny company. 8% wasn't seen as much and they wanted a somewhat older management type with some qualifications. I think BillG might have known of SteveB from his short stint at Harvard.
- andyakb 12y agoBill Gates is older than Steve Ballmer, they were friends, and his stint at Harvard was not short
- nicholas73 12y agoDid he get 8% at start, or did he accumulate 8% over the years through stock awards?
- brudgers 12y agoMicrosoft, perhaps in part by virtue of being outside the Valley, never took venture capital. Like a traditional business there was a little FFF [friends, family, and fools] money, but essentially it was bootstrapped. This meant that Gates and Allan could essentially make Ballmer a third founder five years after the company's founding - a point where venture capital funds are often looking toward creating an exit and would definitely be disinclined toward diluting equity for the sake of a hire. The independence of Gates, Allen. and Ballmer allowed Microsoft to structure employee equity and tine the IPO in a way that made 12,000 millionaires and retain enough equity to effectively ignore Wall Street until Gates and Ballmer began reducing their stakes over the last two or so years