Comment by evmar

6 years ago

His "cost me $200m" is of a $20b company, so by the math he's suggesting he would've had 1% of the company after it went through all the dilutions on its path to $20b.

So yeah, if you have a chance to get nearly a cofounder's amount of equity in a company that will end up 20x a unicorn (which got that name because of how rare they are), then definitely go for it.

If you spend enough time in tech, you meet a lot of people who have this kind of story. It's ridiculous, but not that rare.

Not to mention it's 1% of a $20b company that has yet to go public and seems intent on staying private.

  • They do biannual liquidity events internally. If you’re an employee you can sell your stock back to the company for cash.

    • Another big iff here: iff the true owners of the company permit you to do so. Most startups do not permit this, afaik, which further indicates what a longshot it was that he turned down an offer from one that does.

    • I think they only started doing that recently, after they stayed private so long that many employees started approaching the 10 year mark at which point their options would expire.

  • Since Plantir is not going private for while, would his $200M be at all liquid in any way?