Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity

Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by fragmede on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @01:51PM (#40660930)

to put it bluntly asf, you're being poor (and I'm being insensitive). what's $500k going to do for you if you come from a rich family? you already have your rent paid for until you die, and vacations paid for. all you have to do to do is put up with your annoying family, which isn't the worst if you've been through therapy. your mom or dad's abusive? if you've been through enough family therapy, that's not a problem.

if you ask you mom or dad, whichever believes in you, they have enough money to fund your dreams (if you care enough to ask) of joining or starting a startup to become an (x) CEO/salesman/builder/marketer/whatever for whatever you want to build, and that includes signing onto some startup that won't pay you a living wage until it fail-exists for $5 million and everyone goes to burning man/Berlin/ibiza on the founders dime (including rent for everyone N months).

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by corry on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @03:05PM (#40661736)

My point is that the situation will vary.

Yes, if $500k doesn't move the needle on your life then the question is moot anyways. Most first-time founders will be closer to the poor end of the spectrum than the wealthy side.

There are people reading this for which $20k will change their life (which in my example was the 'shouldn't matter' amount instead of the $500k).

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by Matticus_Rex on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @02:26PM (#40661262)

Yes, there are people who won't get the same benefit from hedging like this.

But they're a small minority. Not that many people meet your description here.

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by dayvid on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @03:38PM (#40662101)

Would be interesting to see average founder who can fundraise large amounts and family income. I’d imagine they tend to come from higher income backgrounds, though could be wrong.

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by Matticus_Rex on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @04:22PM (#40662644)

I'm sure the wealthy are overrepresented, whether or not they got financial help from their families while starting/building the business. But there's a long gap between "being rich makes it more likely to succeed" and "most people who succeed are rich."

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by fragmede on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @11:49PM (#40665760)

the number of people reading this whom are that rich is probably higher than you think, and lower than I think. sure it's a minority, but how many people do you know with apple vision pros vs how many got sold.

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by fragmede on Thursday June 13, 2024 @01:17AM (#40666188)

my goal isn't that someone who is in that position reads this. as you said, they're a small minority. they already know this. but people who aren't in that position might want to know how the world is shaped for other people

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by kelnos on Thursday June 13, 2024 @06:36AM (#40667960)

> what's $500k going to do for you if you come from a rich family?

Perhaps not much, but most people -- even most startup founders -- don't come from a rich family.

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Re:Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity by fragmede on Thursday June 13, 2024 @11:42PM (#40677323)

Elon Musk's father owned an emerald mine, Bill Gate's father was a high-powered lawyer and his mother was on the board of directors for United Way, Mark Zuckerberg's parents are a dentist and a psychiatrist. I don't know the numbers of "even most", but I think it'd be interesting to get some numbers.

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