Comment by phonon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phonon | Hacker News Reader

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Nope.

http://www.secinfo.com/dr6nd.818y.s.htm#1stPage

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-empl...

"So, after five years were up — and my stock was all vested — I probably would have left a little earlier if that had not been the issue.

So, did you hang on to all of the shares because Amazon hit a rough patch just after you left?

“I don’t know what the effect on morale inside the company was since I wasn’t there. But I did do a lot of selling during those times, because from the outside, without knowing what was going on inside the company anymore, I didn’t know if it was going to be a casualty of that era or not, so I cashed out quite a bit of my position. But I did hold on to some of it, and I continue to.”"

Probably between 1 and 2%, I would guess. Some of which he cashed out when the stock was at a low. So between what his current shares are worth now and what he cashed out, probably at least $100 million.

EDIT: His foundation has $53 million in assets, so that should give an idea...

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/651/65121...

Looks like you are right. I didn't see that part as I didn't notice it was a 4 page article.

A lot of money to be sure, but he'd have an order of magnitude or two more if he were the last cofounder instead of the first employee.

Well, he was given the option to put up some money with Jeff at the beginning and declined. I'm guessing that would have doubled his eventual stake...

It was all done on a threadbare budget. At first Bezos backed the company himself with $10,000 in cash, and over the next sixteen months, he would finance the startup with an additional $84,000 in interest-free loans, according to public documents. Kaphan’s contract required him to commit to buying $5,000 of stock upon joining the company. He passed on the option to buy an additional $20,000 in shares, since he was already taking a 50 percent pay cut to work at the startup and would, like Bezos, earn only $64,000 a year. “The whole thing seemed pretty iffy at that stage,” says Kaphan, who some consider an Amazon cofounder. “There wasn’t really anything except for a guy with a barking laugh building desks out of doors in his converted garage, just like he’d seen in my Santa Cruz home office. I was taking a big risk by moving and accepting a low salary and so even though I had some savings, I didn’t feel comfortable committing more than I did.”

(From "The Everything Store")

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