How much money do founders skim off the top?
How much money do founders skim off the top? Like every time they raise a round, how much do they immediately pocket? I remember hearing how Evan Spiegel pocketed as much as 100M at one point in one of Snapchat fundraising rounds.
Itโs called secondaries. Depending on the round it could be 10-20% of the round. Instead of company issuing new stock and diluting the rest of the company, founder sells their own. And it only happens after Series B, rarely Series A, so 1-4 years after founding. Series A average is 5-10M and Series B is roughly 20-30M, so do the math. But keep in mind, very very few startups make it to Series A, and even smaller number to B.
And it takes 4-6 years to get there
And investors donโt like seeing founders sell out
Greatest skimmer of all time? https://www.ft.com/content/3472e2db-717f-4c7a-9d65-c1c461c79870
About $3.50
Increase in salary + bonuses + additional stock every round Probably didnโt directly take 100M off the top.