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The tech industry is just a vehicle for money laundering by the rich now. At least IPOs gave engineers and workers a chance to win a lottery ticket. Developers

The tech industry is just a vehicle for money laundering by the rich now. At least IPOs gave engineers and workers a chance to win a lottery ticket. Developers, stop slaving away for the VC's. You are wasting your time and have no chance of getting paid until we reform the economic foundation of our trade.

mahyarm 12y ago
Well you do get secondaries, but it's usually only something like 10% of vested stock, while your still working there. The lack of a public market also makes it far more risky to hold the stock for long term capital gains tax rates. I agree the lack of IPOs make equity earnings less valuable to the typical employee.
- thecage411 12y ago
  I wish more people knew this. Even if you beat the odds and the startup you work for goes places, you may only get 10%-15% of the proceeds now, and be hoping for the rest even further out in the future. Almost certainly better to just work for a public company from the start.
  - pedalpete 12y ago
    Are you saying you only get 10-15% of the proceeds of YOUR vested stock? So if I have 1% of a $100m company, my shares would only get me $100k, not $1m? Can you explain or link to a source of more information?
    - throwaway7808 12y ago
      If you have 1%, most likely you are an early employee. There's a formula: VCs and founders get reach, early employees get screwed and employees get their market salaries.
    - rhc2104 12y ago
      Petalpete - the comment above refers to pre-ipo sales of employee stock. A bunch of private companies that hit billion dollar valuations let employees sell some of their shares. That person is claiming that those sales allow employees to sell 10-15% of their vested stock. Of course, if they do that, they still keep the other 85-90%.
      - thecage411 12y ago
        This is exactly what I meant, thanks for filling in the details.
  - lanstein 12y ago
    You can opt to sell in the IPO/secondary, but otherwise you're generally free to trade when the trading window is open for current employees (typically) 180 days give or take post-IPO.

mahyarm 12y ago

Well you do get secondaries, but it's usually only something like 10% of vested stock, while your still working there. The lack of a public market also makes it far more risky to hold the stock for long term capital gains tax rates. I agree the lack of IPOs make equity earnings less valuable to the typical employee.

thecage411 12y ago
I wish more people knew this. Even if you beat the odds and the startup you work for goes places, you may only get 10%-15% of the proceeds now, and be hoping for the rest even further out in the future. Almost certainly better to just work for a public company from the start.
- pedalpete 12y ago
  Are you saying you only get 10-15% of the proceeds of YOUR vested stock? So if I have 1% of a $100m company, my shares would only get me $100k, not $1m? Can you explain or link to a source of more information?
  - throwaway7808 12y ago
    If you have 1%, most likely you are an early employee. There's a formula: VCs and founders get reach, early employees get screwed and employees get their market salaries.
  - rhc2104 12y ago
    Petalpete - the comment above refers to pre-ipo sales of employee stock. A bunch of private companies that hit billion dollar valuations let employees sell some of their shares. That person is claiming that those sales allow employees to sell 10-15% of their vested stock. Of course, if they do that, they still keep the other 85-90%.
    - thecage411 12y ago
      This is exactly what I meant, thanks for filling in the details.
- lanstein 12y ago
  You can opt to sell in the IPO/secondary, but otherwise you're generally free to trade when the trading window is open for current employees (typically) 180 days give or take post-IPO.