

Ask HN: How did Steve Ballmer get 8% when he joined Microsoft? - a3voices

He was employee #30. I&#x27;m just wondering why he was given so much?<p>Source: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Steve_Ballmer
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brudgers
Microsoft, perhaps in part by virtue of being outside the Valley, never took
venture capital. Like a traditional business there was a little FFF [friends,
family, and fools] money, but essentially it was bootstrapped.

This meant that Gates and Allan could essentially make Ballmer a third founder
five years after the company's founding - a point where venture capital funds
are often looking toward creating an exit and would definitely be disinclined
toward diluting equity for the sake of a hire.

The independence of Gates, Allen. and Ballmer allowed Microsoft to structure
employee equity and tine the IPO in a way that made 12,000 millionaires and
retain enough equity to effectively ignore Wall Street until Gates and Ballmer
began reducing their stakes over the last two or so years

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nicholas73
Did he get 8% at start, or did he accumulate 8% over the years through stock
awards?

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CyberFonic
Back then MS was a tiny company. 8% wasn't seen as much and they wanted a
somewhat older management type with some qualifications. I think BillG might
have known of SteveB from his short stint at Harvard.

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andyakb
Bill Gates is older than Steve Ballmer, they were friends, and his stint at
Harvard was not short

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hindsightbias
FOB, smarter than Bill, and probably the only guy who'd taken an MBA class.

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brudgers
What Ballmer brought to Microsoft was a different skill set. It was no more
about an MBA class or two than it was about the CS classes Gates took during
his year at Harvard. Running a business was something that interested Ballmer
analogous to Gates interest in programming.

Diversifying the skill set of the core team was probably a key factor in
Microsoft's successful growth over the next three decades

