Forbes' 20 Under 25: The Top-Earning Young Superstars - How Many Do You Think Have Startups? | Hacker News Reader

Forbes' 20 Under 25: The Top-Earning Young Superstars - How Many Do You Think Have Startups?

forbes.com

14 pointspius16 comments

How Many Do You Think Have Startups?

None, obviously, because they didn't include capital gains, which is the way startup founders get paid.

"Forbes' 20 Under 25 list of the Top-Earning Young Superstars examined earnings from June 2006 to June 2007. We included salaries, winnings, endorsement deals and royalties."

Nice catch . . . didn't notice their methodology. You'd think Forbes could do a little better than that.

Zuckerberg is on track to be worth more than all of them combined at least a few times over.

Since Facebook's valuation is now a nice round $15 billion, Zuckerberg's 20% stake is worth $3 billion.

Of course, it's not like he will be converting that to cold hard cash anytime soon, but everyone on that list would have to be worth at least $120m to equal that. I'm sure the Olsen Twins are, but the Harry Potter stars definitely aren't.

Then again, this was about income, not net worth or capital gains. Pretty sure Warren Buffet wouldn't make this list (since he doesn't pay himself much) even if he was young enough.

> Since Facebook's valuation is now a nice round $15 billion

After Beacon fiasco, do you still think that? That $15B is based on a relatively small MS investment (which is basically a pre-payment for their advertising deal) and FB is still not making any real money. For them to have a $15B valuation, they should have at least $1B in revenues (to justify 15x valuation) as a private company. Based on their financing strategy, they don't make anywhere close to that.

I never said I personally thought it was worth anywhere near that. Of course the valuation of a private company is completely speculative... and of course the Microsoft investment was just a stunt to produce a really high number.

I was just saying to the person that commented about no startup founder making the list that if we counted paper-make-believe-valley-money... there wouldn't be anyone on there BUT founders.

What is Facebook going to do, start charging users? become the next MySpace? If they have accomplished anything, it is making the net cast off the idea of anonymity. Now you can't even have a drink with your friends without your Mom/Boss/Professors seeing it online. A sad world really.

Facebook is still cheap at 15B. Here's the catch: that doesn't mean someone should buy it at 15B. The acquirer will likely end up disrupting the path facebook's on right now.

Just imagine if yahoo bought google back in the day - I doubt google would be what it is today.

Haha - Hannah Montana made as much as Lindsay Lohan!

You know your career is shot when an actor from Disney that lipsyncs to little kids and calls it a concert is on track to surpass your income.

Did you make more than Hannah Montana?

I think he meant your career as a global entertainment icon. And yes, I make less than Hannah Montana, so my career as a global entertainment icon is shot.

Pretty sure she (Montana/Cyrus) can actually sing.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear your career is shot.

Clearly none, how many startup founders are called "superstars" by the pres.

The thing about it is that I rather build a $5M startup than having someone else sign my check. Plus I would hate to entertain people for a living.

Or your 5M$ check could be signed by the same people! Disney, for instance (which signs, directly or indirectly a large portion of most those celebrities checks), has bought out a couple startups if I remember correctly.

Digg.com/celebrity worthy.

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