How Startup Employees Get Rich (without getting lucky)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Join my community at johncoogan.com (enter your email)
ABOUT JOHN COOGAN:
I am the co-founder of soylent.com and lucy.co, both of which were funded by Y Combinator (Summer 2012 and Winter 2018).
I've been an entrepreneur for the last decade across multiple companies. I've done a lot of work in Silicon Valley, so that's mostly what I talk about. I've raised over 10 rounds of venture capital totaling over $100m in funding.
I work mostly in tech-enabled consumer packaged goods, meaning I use software to make the best products possible and then deliver them to the widest possible audience. I'm a big fan of machine learning, python programming, and motion graphics.
OTHER VIDEOS:
Why Facebook is Spending Billions on the Metaverse - • You Don't Know the Met...
The Only Reason SpaceX Works (Gwynne Shotwell) - • The Only Reason SpaceX...
Peter Thiel’s Big Bet on Space Manufacturing - • How Varda Solved Manuf...
CONTACT:
You can get in touch with me via Twitter: / johncoogan
Disclaimer: This video is purely my opinion and should not be regarded as a primary source. I am not a financial advisor and this is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Always do your own due diligence. 
Наука
![Yailin La Mas Viral, @kreizyk.official - Dale 2 (Remix) [Video Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JaYHBzgqz94/mqdefault.jpg)
Having worked for a few different startups as an engineer and architect, there are a lot of pro's and cons to working in this space.
- You work long hours, tight deadlines, all under immense stress in an environment you're learning to navigate as you go. Sort of fly-by-your-pants stuff. Compensation can vary in terms of structure, take-home pay, and benefits, and at the end of the day you're not guaranteed to succeed as a company.
At the same time, many of those cons are pros. You learn a lot, gain a tremendous amount of knowledge and confidence in your abilities to think, speak, and get sh*t done. And hopefully, you earn a fair amount of coin, especially if the startup is successful
All that said, it can burn you out quick if you aren't prepared!
for sure, agree with all of this. thanks for sharing your perspective!
Most people *do not* get such payouts at all. I've worked in tech for 16 years now. I only know a few people who made any kind of decent money on their equity. Most of those folks only made $50-200k. Only one friend really hit it big and made $500k when their startup IPO'd.
I think luck is a big part of the game.
how much are those companies valued at?
🔥 really valuable content & definitely agree that being an early startup employee is not talked about enough compared with being a founder, etc.
thanks a lot! yeah, it takes a big team to build a great company.
Yes I've been working as a Software Engineer for 1 year and a half at a Sillicon Valley startup. Great salary, equity, and more. Hopefully I'll become wealthy in the future. Company has great funding, strong traction, and it's going very well.
amazing! good luck!
@@JohnCooganPlus Damn you actually replied! thanks John!
@@ameerashhab6721can I become software engineer without degree from here in india
Starting early is the best way of getting ahead to build wealth, investing remains a priority. The stock market has plenty of opportunities to earn a decent payouts, with the right skills and proper understanding of how the market works.
Ever since I lost my job with the ministry, I have been surviving through my investment with her, am so glad I invested when I did. I’m earring $25k weekly with her
Investment is that tiny line that separates the rich from the poor.
Her successful stories are everywhere
please I have been hearing about this kamilla from my colleagues at work. How do I easily reach out to her
She has really made name for her self,
“Without getting lucky” - goes on to immediately describe the process of getting lucky by backing a winning horse.
97.6% of “seed” series startups never get to an exit event (read: employees never make a single $ from their stock). Only 17% of series A startups go on to have an exit event. You are *very much* gambling when you accept compensation in the form of equity in a startup. While the odds are better for later-stage (56% of series B, 86% of series C startups have a successful exit), the chances they will sell or go public at a price that makes your equity worth very little or even $0 also goes up. Generally less risk also means less rewards with later-stage startups.
How do VCs deal with this? Why are they OK with investing when the failure rate is so high? You cannot think like a VC when picking a startup to work at; while you can only work for ~one startup at a time, VCs have anywhere from dozens to hundreds of investments in different startups at any given time, and they know their profits will come from just the handful that succeed and make it big. That’s right, when that startup tells you they’re backed by “big name brand VC,” that VC *knows* they’ll probably fail, and is ok with that. Of course they try to pick winners, but they only need something like 1/20 investments they pick to really succeed in order to make money. Even with those odds, VCs spend weeks to months scrutinizing each startup they choose to invest in, and have teams of people doing due diligence. If you work an average of 4 years per startup, that means you’d have to work 80 years to have the same odds as a VC to pick a winning startup, and that’s *assuming* you can pick your startups as carefully as they do (when was the last time a startup handed you all their financial records before you decided to take a job with them?) How do you like your odds?
Make your decision to join a startup based on the assumption that it will fail and your equity will be worth $0. Would you still consider your compensation at least adequate, would you still be growing your career, would you still be happy day-to-day and enjoy the people you work with even if the company failed? If the answer is no to any one of these questions under the assumption you’ll *never* be able to make a single dollar from your RSUs/options, you’re not ready to join that startup.
👍
Excellent analysis, Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Could you name a few startups we can consider joining based on your perspective? It will be helpful for others as well.
The wisest thing that should be on everyone's mind currently should be. To invest in different streams of income that doesn't depend on government, especially with the current economic crises around the world.
His trade execution quality and profiting is well structured with great financial features.
Working with Romero pieto is the best thing that can happen to a beginner trader who is aspiring to be fruitful out of the market he is trustworthy and straightforward we surely need more men like him in trading world.
Good good content.
Yes I'm a living testimony of Romero pieto his platform has also done a great thing for me.
I've seen so many review about this man called Romero pieto who is he ?
Hey John, some feedback about the editing: I felt like this video had too many movie clips. I prefer seeing you and your energy come through your gestures and mimics!
John, you are easily one of my all time fav youtuber! The quality of each of your content is amazing, so much work, so well planned, so much information. Big respect to your work!
The moral: avoid working at startups whose founder has been featured on Forbes! 🤣
*Great channel and highly informative video. I was able to retire early and also successful by building a passive income stream, living frugal, and investing. I’ve always said this to everyone that Investing is key to financial freedom*
@Matteo Evie I engage in different kinds of prolific Investments- launchpad IDOs, stock, NFTs, and multifamily real estates through proper planning and management of a widely known financial consultant, and so far the experience has been the best for my finances
As to get more details on suitable investment
plans you could indulge in. You can easily find
the Investment Professional (Donald Nathan
Scott) on the internet where you can easily
reach out him her and as well write him.
I’m happy hearing someone talk good about Donald Nathan Scott. Donald Nathan Scott offers a very good service and he has been influential in my financial journey. I'm surprised his name mentioned here and I’m happy as to read positive recommendations here. I met Donald in Florida two years ago and I have been working with him ever since and sincerely , choosing to work with him is one of my best decision in life.
There's no limitation to what we can achieve, if you put your mind to it. You can do it. My wife and I met her in 2016. We knew how to earn and spend money but when it came to financial planning we were novices. We took on her strategies and here we are 6 years on extremely pleased with the decision we made
Team John Coogan. Represent
OP, you make it seem easier than it actually is. The unicorn startups where your stock option will be worth 100x what you paid for it are very rare. You're deceiving viewers who don't understand survivorship bias. I've joined several startups prior to IPO, 2 of them can be considered industry leaders in their niche, yet their stock still tanked after IPO (at it often does). You can definitely make 100k+ from options/stocks, but it's very rare to get millions this way, most companies will not be the next Google and your options will not 100x. Maybe if you're a super-early employee, but in that case your life will be hell for the next 5+ years before the IPO as you work 80+ hour weeks, sleeping at the office, fearing that in 6 months the company won't be able to raise the next round and will be forced to declare bankruptcy - definitely not the picture you painted in your video.
Thx for saving me 12 More minutes
A lot of people made tons of money from companies with ideas that didn't seem to make much sense; a lot of companies with great team and ideas ended up in a failure after several years of grinding. Even investors who put money in the companies didn't know how their portfolio companies would end up. They typically do educated-shotgun (invest in 10-20 or more and hope that 2-3 would become wildly successful). Moderna could have failed or be a couple decades of long-grind without much reward for employees, if it was not because of the pandemic. But shotgun approach won't work well for employees, as employees typically have to work for one company for at least few years. Plenty other people make even more in big established companies that have a decade long good run (think Apple). So it is really not as simple as it is described here.
Very interesting and important topic explained.
I haven't seen anyone talking about it.
Thanks so much!
glad you liked it!
Moment of silence if you work at a startup and wasnt offered stock. The US has better market forces at play.
It is a *high risk high reward* scenario, like all the eggs in one basket. It doesn't offer diversification (I can not work in a two startups at the same time). Rather I would buy small cap stocks, or unlisted companies and diversify.
Coming from a startup founder, saying that Theranos wasn't backed by any large backers is false. They actually had some of the most prestigious backing which played into why they were able to get away with it. Other than that solid take!
who are you referring to exactly? they had some famous people involved, but no top tier VC firms invested significant money to my knowledge. Tim Draper put some money in the seed round but it seemed like a family favor. His firm DFJ didn’t lead any major rounds.
Launched my startup four weeks ago.
So excited
CAN I KNOW MORE ABOUT IT PLS?
How's it going?
good luck!
@@kshitijpatil9015 What would you like know?
@@larsson8689 what is the startup about and in what sector it is.
This video needs attention. Thanks for doing this.
no problem!
Hey. John. Do you edit all your videos yourself?? It's really good
Bro your videos are the best! I can't thank you enough
amazing to hear! thanks for watching!
@@JohnCooganPlus alg man, keep up the great work!
As some one who has spent 10 years working at startups, this video felt extremely click-baity.
You started off by saying most people only focus on billionaires, but then proceed to basically just talk about their companies (effectively the same thing). Startup employees only get rich from that startup IF they're lucky and picked the right one. The most honest investor will tell you just how much luck plays into it.
I guess maybe I was expecting a "here are things you can do to build wealth while taking a pay cut to work at a startup" and instead got a video that basically just says "if you pick the right start up, you may make millions."
Either way, enjoyed the content and subscribed. Look forward to more!
Also, "startup employees often make more money than founders"?!? What was that about?
it’s true! when it comes to founders you have a small number of people making billions while most make nothing. when it comes to startup employees, average make decent salaries but a ton still make millions on equity. sorry if that wasn’t clear, should have explained the data in more detail.
@@JohnCooganPlus no worries at all!! Still a great video!
I kinda wish someone would make a video focusing on the founders who don't build billion dollar businesses, but instead build 10-100m businesses. A lot less glory, but yet more achievable and probably more common?
I never tought about this, thanks john as always for the amazing content
glad this could be helpful!
Hey John, How about working for Mammoth Biosciences ? It was founded by Jennifer Doudna (inventor of CRISPR, nobel laureate and a PhD from Harvard) and even Tim Cook funded 'em with 30 million dollars.
I'm not sure if that company is going to make more money.
Edit : And is it possible for you to recommend 1 or 2 companies to work for
1. Join a great startup.
john u are gonna hit 1mill subs soon , your contents are 🔥keep doing it we love the
knowledge u give us
Great video and very insightful.
How do your movie clips align so perfectly?
Video quality is good, you implement a lot of good tactics.
Whatsapp✙𝟏𝟕405711682
More updates on ETH,XRP,XLM📊
Whatsapp✙𝟏𝟕405711682
More updates on XDC, NFT’s , BTC📊
👆👆👆👆👆👆.
Honestly it’s much easier and be an early investor then sacrifice a startup Vs a well paying job
and the method was actually getting lucky D:
hahaha okay fair, *some* luck usually involved. 🍀
the value in this video is in tons!
hopefully it will be a resource for a long time. i get asked these questions all the time!
Except WeWork start-up employees got shafted as well.
I'm starting a company with an existing competitor, any advice?
outwork them or find a unique value prop that they are missing.
@@JohnCooganPlus Your a beast, thank you.
Great video!
I mean it makes sense to me
Awesome video! Am I going crazy… I swear I heard a baby in the background. That or my place is haunted 🤪
hahaha no that was definitely my son!
came in the comments to make sure I wasn't losing it! 🙈
I thought it was my kid lol
Nice video
Man! You're letting a lot of secrets out here lmao
Gold 💥
In your new picture you seem.. umm, sleepless, tired? Why use that on thumbnails?
Just my observation, thanks for your videos!
hahah, probably just the lighting. still working on these things
If you guys have this much knowledge,why aren't you billionaires or millions though🤔?
colt stelle what are you doing here 😊😊😊😊
This title came from Naval Ravkants thread
yep! hopefully it’s a clear nod to one of the greats 😉
These videos makes our days better
That was a good video!
glad you liked it!
LOL some will dislike to reveal their secret.
Why illustrate all your videos with cringey Wolf of Wall street scenes ? He's a literal criminal
Top 3 salesman of all time
TLDR : rich parents
P
how to be a leech 101
first
This is exactly why I'm buying as much Hedera (HBAR) as I possibly can. It's the startup to end all startups for the next big leap in technology.
Reminds me of this reddit conversation where software developers explained how they work at FAANG and managed to get into positions where they can coast and only work 5-10 hours a week. But earn several 100k a year.
Do you really believe in this story?
Actually yes. And actually it was multiple people reporting that..
Let me find that thread again
I want the link too, i need this power
Yes and there was this other thread that was proving that sitting comfortably at FAANG will make you richer than playing the startup lottery, on average.
@@the1yearexperiment did you find the link?
I've heard the best time to join a startup is right after they raise a Series A, because they already have some traction, and are hiring agressively.
i think that’s a good point usually. the series a metrics have slid around a lot recently. you used to always need strong product-market fit to raise an A, but the last few years have been crazy.
@@JohnCooganPlus can you help me John from which Web site you get these movie clips from??
@@avi6463 ..just download/stream the movie and clip it with a screen recorder yourself?
@@avi6463 almost all of them were from the same two movies (the social network and the wolf of Wall Street) so it's not much work
@@l1mbo69 thank you buddy, still I feel like he download movie clips from a website and that is what I want yo know... 😅
I have a cussin that just cashed out his stake for $12 million on a unicorn 🦄 startup he is working at
name of a start up, plz.
wow, congrats to your cousin!
You need to also time the economic cycle right. Like right now any startup just starting will have a hard time getting funding.
Praying for IPO every night.
If you need to uncover and know all the variables that could lead to success for a startup company so you can decide whether to work for it or not, you might as well start your own company.
Haven't watched the video yet. But I know its gonna be informative.
Thanks john
hahah hope you liked it!
Silicone Valley Jake Tran!
Hi John, appreciate these interesting and helpful videos. I wondered if you could create a video on how to get into the space of tech startups, what media to follow, which news outlets to read etc. You obviously have a good grip on the information out there, so would love it if you would share your open sources!
Other than that, thanks for the videos!
i like this idea!
I’d love that too!!
@@JohnCooganPlus please do
Pls make a video on how to avoid/reduce government regulations when your startup is predicted to be great.
As a dev this is really good!!
awesome, really glad this was helpful info!
Professionnal investor invest in thousand company because they dont know wich one will succeed but you simple employe will make the right choice with one try.... suuurrreee ....
You can only connect the dot backward
Big firms do invest in a lot of companies because they have the money to spend, but there are individual investors in good acceletor programs that only invest in a couple dozen startups. I think that if you use the same methodologies that these individual investors use to know if a company has a decent chance of working, the cards would be more stacked in your favor. Yes, the risk you're running is much higher than the individual investors because you're not diversified, but that's the tradeoff. It's not guaranteed but the upside reward is that much higher. You are losing tens of thousands of dollars in paycut for a 5 to 10% chance of millions of dollars as a payoff. If you believe in the abilities of the founders and the idea makes sense to you, the only thing that is left is to work as hard as you can to make sure your bet pays off.
@@newyorthtimes4496 to many "if" but i agree with you :)
Love the transparency! I agree with looking into who the investors are. It's important to know that the company is pursuing the right investors and not "random" investment money. This will also help you gain insight on the longevity of the company and the type of support it'll have.
Love your videos, informative as always.
thanks!
I've worked at a few venture backed startups. Getting any value from the equity is rare and has a really long time horizon. You also have to be really early for the equity to life changing, but the earlier you join, the more risk, and the longer the time to wait until the payout. Startups have other benefits though, the biggest one being that generally it's just more fulfilling.
John what are your thoughs on crypto I don't see where is the value?
hahaha that’s a bigggg question. i think crypto is a cool technology but it’s incredibly hard to make money trading it, so be very careful if you invest. the main value seems to be censorship resistance/ independence from the government, which some people are really into!
anyone else hear the baby in the background?
great video , nice content and thorough research .sorry what was the name of the movie you showed at 14:31 in the video
@♜ Pinned. by John Coogan ok
Can someone please explain to me how you work as an employee at a startup company and still walk away with nothing when the company fails, when you're being paid on a monthly salary?
usually it's not that good and it's a lot more arduous and stressful
The MRJ-1-2 model is a descriptive model that delineates the processes of acceptance for the emergence of an entity or phenomenon in existence. It serves as an operational guide for analyzing any entity or phenomenon that has the potential for continuous emergence, growth, and transformation in existence. By intelligently identifying, selecting, and accepting itself through specific processes and procedures, it gains the potential for emergence in existence.
Furthermore, any entity or phenomenon going through the process of acquisition of acceptance for its emergence in existence passes through the following stages:
- Initiation (the emergence of a novel subject in the realm of necessities and current issues)
- Manifestation (the appearance of structures in the light of solutions)
- Establishment (clarification of principles, values, goals, etc.)
- Raising (in progress and implementation, rising)
- Nurturing (growing to the necessary extent)
- Scaling (being acknowledged, being accepted)
- Development (capable of development, expandable, revivable)
- Rejuvenation (accepting necessary changes)
It is completely free to use the MRJ-1-2 model, provided the source is credited.
Sadly "Hustlers following the hype-wave" sounds like what hype-following investors will invest in.
Can be bought out early on whilst there's convergence in that hyped-up market, and you cash-out big and early
Hey John you should mention the WhatsApp spammers that have been spamming in comments pretending to be you. Some people might actually fall for it.
You can mention it in a pinned comment.
Thanks 🤸♂️
Can we just take a moment to give a shoutout to John for putting together such an effective summary of an otherwise often-overlooked issue that affects even my smartest friends in Silicon Valley?!
I'm sharing this video with some of the college students I've been mentoring. It's a great way to prep for a career in the Valley
Liked the video very much. Very informative. But, I think it would be even better if you could make it as some kind of a structured lesson with a list of steps, instructions, schemes. Those footages from movies just make it more difficult to focus on the valuable information you provide. Thank you. 👍
Glad to see a new upload just in time for my morning breakfast
Hello John. Please what mic do you use? Your channel motivates me to start my to RUclips journey
Had to stop at Moderna. Bye.
The premise of this video is a lie
Great video
wow i remember when you were at 6k
it’s been a wild ride!
Perfect title.
🔥
No employee at any company ever get "RICH"
sign me up John! Sounds like a fun adventure 😄
let’s go! 🚀
another insightful video.
Glad you enjoyed it
informative as always
Thanks!
Hi, I love your videos
thanks!
If you have a startup idea. Comment down . Let's talk and grow together 😊