Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

If your goal is to get the big payout, what the hell are you working at Google for? Most of the people that got the big payout from Google joined...right around when you did, or a few years before. Your odds of becoming an executive at Google are far lower than they are at succeeding with your own startup and getting bought out for big sums.

If you want a big payout, you're much better off working for Google for a couple years to build experience and a reputation, quitting and founding a startup, and then getting reacquired by Google in a $5-20M talent acquisition.

Most people I know at Google are there because they want to work on interesting technical problems without dealing with all the bullshit that comes from running your own business. Google is still very, very effective at that - quite possibly the best place in the world for an engineer that wants to do cool stuff, launch to millions of people, and not push their way through lots of hassles.

Google is still handing out million dollar awards. For many people, the low risk but potentially high reward setup is ideal.

For instance, getting the big Android founder's award probably beat being the 10th employee at Aardvark.

Only if you're Andy Rubin.

When I look at the dollar amount of some of the largest-ever Founders Awards and then see how many people they're split between, I can't imagine that the payout is anywhere close to even an employee's payout for an acquisition. I dunno how the Founders Awards are divided up, but I'd imagine that it's a skew distribution, with most of it going to the initiators and key early team members of the project. Some of these teams have hundreds of employees; I really doubt that someone who joined six months before the Founders Award makes off with any more than a "Hey, that's a nifty bonus" amount.

People tell me how much they're getting. The numbers do go up to 7 figures even for rank and file engineers. But if I wrote a post about how to get that kind of money, I'd be accused of being even more cynical (I'm already accused of being very cynical when I wrote this article). Besides that kind of information should really go into the next edition of my book.

Google can and does hand out big bonuses. There's so much cash flowing through the company that a little sprinkle of it (by Google's standards) is still a lot of money. If you're one of the fast-tracked folks at Google, there is no reason to join a startup just for the money.

Based on the little I know about this, it probably beat being almost any employee. With $6 million invested, sold for $50 million, wouldn't you need more than a 2% stake to earn a million on the sale? Could someone more knowledgable break down how that $50 million was likely distributed, and what number employee you would have to be to get a million? (also what's the tax difference between the founders award and a million dollar startup exit)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com