How do Silicon Valley Techies Celebrate getting rich in a pandemic?

The unsurety purportedly felt by these newly minted rich techies reminds me of the moment Brian Chesky (Airbnb co-founder) first learned that the Airbnb IPO was opening at $139, double what it was priced it was priced at ($68) [0]. His shock is pretty tangible.

[0]: https://youtu.be/Yh4okQ7d3Qk?t=134

The TL;Dr; on this one is that sudden wealth in a time of huge challenges appears to mitigate a lot of snap "impulse" buys when people are suddenly much wealthier than they thought. Here is the relevant bit:

Over the past six months, at least 35 companies that were founded in the San Francisco Bay Area — including Airbnb, DoorDash and the data warehousing company Snowflake — have gone public for a combined market value of $446 billion, according to a tally by The New York Times. Those companies’ “lockup periods,” which prevent insiders from selling most of their stock soon after an I.P.O., will expire in the coming months, unleashing a wave of wealth.

Just a handful of those I.P.O.s could mint an estimated 7,000 millionaires, according to an analysis by EquityBee, a platform that facilitates start-up equity transactions. The stream of I.P.O.s has been large enough that the tax income from them may wipe out some of California’s projected budget shortfall.

There are a couple of takeaways here which are good to keep in mind. There are way fewer than 7000 "founders" in 35 companies, so the mantra "only founders get rich, employees are chumps" is once again debunked by reality. And secondly, the whole "getting rich" part is as more about the randomness associated with what company you're working for, and when you started, than it is about your own talent.

A lot of people may be experiencing what I experienced back in 1997 when a complete idiot who was effectively fired from Sun went to work for a startup, that then went public, and dropped over $6M into their pocket. This really messed with my head, more so than I appreciated at the time. If you are in that position you need to work through that.

The other thing you may experience, especially if you work at one of these places and a friend at work is now a "gazillionare" and you aren't, is that some of your friendships are broken. You may find that someone you used to hang out with, now no longer wants to hang out because the things they want to talk about like whether the $15,000 a year private school is better than the $10,000 a year private school for your kids. Because they know this isn't a choice you have to worry about they become uncomfortable. Sadly I don't have any advice on how to fix that one, it isn't you, it is definitely them.

And of course now 7000 more people can afford to buy one of those "ridiculously over priced" homes in the Bay Area. Which is how the market has been sustained for the last 30 years at least.