Hacker News Reader

Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

Being nominally a billion dollar VC backed company isn’t success until you’ve got a 7 figure exit, it’s just a number someone made up.

So sure, you can have a “successful” exist without becoming a unicorn, but that doesn’t mean the odds end up very good or you wouldn’t have been better off financially working for Google.

View on HN

Pretty sure 7 figures would be a massive failure in that case

Founder’s don’t keep a high percentage of the company through multiple rounds of funding, employee stock options and YC prefers multiple founders.

Zuckerberg had 28% of Facebook at IPO but the other 4 founders had far less of a stake. Sub 10% of 1 billion is 7 figures.

> Sub 10% of 1 billion is 7 figures

8 figures, not 7

I meant sub 10% of 28%, which is what the other FB founders got but you’re right that could be low 8 figures even after taxes.

Except you also take a pay cut for several of those years so your benefit from a billion dollar IPO over non startup really can be 6 figures if you’re not the CEO.

* can be 7 figures if you’re not the CEO.

Though obviously if the unicorn is worth 20B things look vastly better even with a 2% stake.

Surely someone must have the statistic on how many YC companies had an exit/are still running, right? I bet it beats the industry average by a long shot.

It varies by cohort and age of companies. But the 10 year average is:

- 58% alive

- 8% acquired

- 34% dead

Reply on news.ycombinator.com