Early member of Nicira acquired by VMware within a year which became NSX very good exit 1.2 billion $
Raised three rounds, never got to acquisition but also didn’t die. I left a year or two ago and now I just have a bunch of paper money that will likely be 0. Startup has been around for 6+ years. Purgatory is depressing
Thank you for sharing, it is important for people to understand the monster payouts are RARE AF.
This is the most common story by far.
I've been in startups that went public; one did so with a 5-for-1 reverse split to bring the opening price into the $15 range. I've been in ones that sank without a trace. I've been in ones that got acquired on terms that made the developers' stock worthless, because the payout was only for the venture capitalists.
I was employee #30 at a small startup. Less than a year after, it was acquired by a big co, the product was killed and people dispersed throughout the big co. I got paid a $100k bonus with no strings attached (which more than made it up for the subpar base) and left in three months.
Nothing vested
sucked, company ran out of money, couldn’t get funding and folded
Company's assets were sold to a competitor when they declared bankruptcy. Not a great exit.
I was the second employee and spent four years building a company that exited in the $200M range. There’s a pretty sharp decline in how us early hires fared. I’m thrilled I came away with enough to buy a decent house and felt really good about it (could have done better but sold some stock in a private sale early to true up for the first couple low Tc years). But worth noting I did half as well as the first employee, and the person after me did about half as well as I did, and by the time you get to 10+ you’re in modest car down payment territory. I feel very fortunate to have done as well as I did tbh
How long have you stayed in the company? What was your initial (undiluted) equity percentage?
Wow, didn't know the decline was so sharp as you go through each employee
I got enough money to pay off my student loans, build a thick emergency fund, and get a start on tax-advantaged retirement funds. I wish I'd bought Bitcoin or Tesla stock like some coworkers did. All in on Tesla would have me in the low single digit millions. All in on Bitcoin would be $80M. Hindsight 20/20.
Bitcoin isn’t done yet
Oh certainly not. I'm still in for the long haul, just at a higher average than I could have had with more walk to match my talk.
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First got acquired in terms where common stock made no money. But my time in the company was well worth it. Second joined as first engineer, all founders were stellar on paper with experience as VPs in large bay area tech. I really felt they were clueless building something ground up and left after 2 years with no money and ton of regret.
I think this is most of the valley professional managers where they’re delusional in thinking if they work at google, for sure they can start their own company
I started and exited my startup 4 years ago. It got acquired for 40-70 million by a company that is doing quite well right now. We were only 9 employees including me. I didn’t know what to do when I got the wire transfer to be honest it was crazy, because now I had money that would take care of kids grandkids etc. I couldn’t just disappear because I have a big family and a lot of friends so they would know something is up. I live in an average home and drive a 2007 Toyota Prius. Right now I just donate half of my TC to charity and am starting to stir up retirement talks so I am able to retire in peace within a couple of years. I am also very happy I don’t have to actively participate in the corporate rat race. Side note: A huge part I didn’t mention was a whole lot of luck. It’s about being in the right place at the right time with a bunch of luck. And also, I did not go to IIT for those who are wondering 😄
Thanks for sharing
Wow! Smart plan. Good for you.