Comment by cryptica
6 years ago
>> He asked, "How much a year do you make at Microsoft?"
>> It was $72,000 a year, really the lowest of the low coming right out of college. He got out his checkbook and wrote me that check.
>> "Cash this check, quit your job. This is a zero risk opportunity for you."
>> I said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Thiel, but I might get promoted to Level 60 next year."
Wow. This is probably the most impressive combination of arrogance and stupidity that I've ever read about or witnessed in my life.
It's the safe and rational choice. I went to work at a startup after college and the company ran out of money in three years and valued my equity at zero. I absolutely would have been better off financially working for Microsoft.
That Palantir worked out is hindsight bias. There's no way he could or should have expected it to succeed at the time.
I don't think this is fair. In part, because valuations are so high today, but 2004 was totally different. This was shortly after the bubble burst. An enormous number of people went to interesting startups and lost their jobs/equity when the companies went under. Nowadays, startups have been de-risked quite a bit and there's obviously a lot of money if you operate well, but at the time, a career in Microsoft probably seemed extremely rational.