
Silicon Valley’s Unbridled Optimism Gets Fresh Reality Check - chmaynard
https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valleys-optimism-turns-into-shame-of-being-suckered-11548153000
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piokoch
When I've started reading the article I had to double check I am not on some
parody site like "The Onion" that tries to ridicule SV startups community.

"The company spent millions of dollars raised from investors [...] on on-tap
kombucha, arcade games and a six-figure salary for its pedigreed chief
executive"

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whack
Isn't a six figure salary for the CEO pretty normal? The article later said
that his salary was 125k, which is how much a 22 year old college graduate
makes at Google. The on-tap kombucha and arcade games are probably a rounding
error in their budget. The article is trying unfairly to paint them as a bunch
of reckless hedonists.

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dannypgh
Not sure it's useful to reason about CEO pay independently of company
performance. Google's revenue and profit per-employee are quite high. If your
startup is just bleeding money on hopes and promises, it's probably harder to
justify a salary that high. The cut below 6 figures happened in the context of
layoffs...

CEOs of very early companies that don't have an established business model and
are dependent on investors to stay afloat should expect most of their
compensation in equity, not salary.

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gwbas1c
Equity doesn't pay the rent. $122k in Silicon Valley doesn't go far.

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geggam
Single guy would still be ok with that.

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gwbas1c
Exactly, a young CEO without a lot of savings probably meets that criteria.

A founding CEO with a family might have other sources of income to rely on,
and be able to get away with less.

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whack
Non paywall: [https://outline.com/ywDFzd](https://outline.com/ywDFzd)

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gadders
Bookmarklet to send URLs to Outline:

    
    
      javascript:(function()%7Bwindow.location.href %3D 'https%3A%2F%2Foutline.com%2F' %2B window.location.href%7D)()
    
    

Taken from:
[https://www.designernews.co/comments/257987](https://www.designernews.co/comments/257987)

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11thEarlOfMar
"Mr. Lindsay has told associates he is bringing in a new high-level hire[0]
for strategic help."

[0] [http://www.piedpiper.com/introducing-jack-action-jack-
barker...](http://www.piedpiper.com/introducing-jack-action-jack-barker/)

