YouTube, Reddit and Instagram technology giants – but some of its founders spent early

This is it A big dilemma Confronting the founders all over the world: Once they start getting a large size enough to attract the attention of buyers, they face a decision whether you have to do so DisperseOr use fuel courtesy to become larger.

Although it might seem to be universal to say yes to the acquisition Be able to Make independently.

There may not be a modern case better than Mark Zuckerberg. In 2006, he received huge Offers– 750 million dollars from Viacom and 900 million dollars from Yahoo – to buy Facebook. However, when he was 22 years old, he was optimistic that he still had a lot of runway.

“We focus on building the company on the long term,” Zuckerberg said at the time. Today, the social platform is now known as the name Dead It deserves slightly more than $ 1.9 trillion – an increase of 2100x over two decades. Zuckerberg’s private fortune is more than 260 billion dollars, according to L. Bloomberg is a billionaire index.

Years later, Facebook started performing its own acquisitions; Significantly Offer to buy Snapchat For $ 3 billion in 2013. pop The founder Ivan Spiegel resisted, and today, the value of the social platform of photos is $ 12 billion.

Of course, in both cases, the founders are now members of The Ultrawealthy and made much more by waiting for the sale early. However, this is not the reality of everyone.

YouTube: From 1.65 billion dollars to 550 billion dollars in a global platform

When the first video ever on YouTube-“Meet me in the zoo– He lives in 2005, no one expected the video platform to explode.

The growth was so great that after a little more than a year after its foundation, the founders Chad Hurley, Stephen Chen and the dismantling of Karim decided that Google The offer was 1.65 billion dollars very good for resistance.

“This is great,” Hurley said in A. The video was published When the sale was in the fall of 2006.

HurleyAt that time, YouTube’s received shares of $ 345 million by the time when the Securities and Stock Exchange Committee documents were issued a few months later, according to New York Times. Chen, YouTube then CTO, received about $ 326 million in stocks; Karim, who left the project early to return to school, got $ 64 million.

While the sale made them financially safe and lived from their position as a pioneer of technology, it was just a small part of $ 550 billion is YouTube value In the day, an increase of 333x (non -inflation). For Hurley Chen, its value can be about $ 100 billion each.

Redait: From waffle House to the final public subscription

After getting out of the LSAT exam for 20 minutes and heading to the Wafel house, Alexis Ohaanian He decided that he wanted to become a pioneer. After meeting Steve Hoffman as students at the University of Virginia and then joined Aaron Schwartz, Redit’s foundations were created in 2005.

Within a year and a half, the social platform exploded to more than 70,000 unique daily visitors, and the buyers came knocking. But instead of steadfastness, the founders, who were in the early twenties, were unable Display From Conde Nast. In addition, OHANAN’s life was a little in a state of chaos: his girlfriend was at the time in a coma, his dog died, and his mother was diagnosed with peripheral brain cancer.

“As CEO of the first time from the university, you feel unreasonable, and you are satisfied with building this work,” he told Ohaanian. Wireless last month. “Then all these things happen. In particular, when my mother was diagnosed, it is really framed for me in a new way.”

Flash forward to this day, Reddit is now worth more than $ 45 billion Earlier this year. Founders can share a pie of more than 4,500X with the original sales size. In fact, Ohanian goes beyond his wife, Serena Williams with her $ 350 million Net value.

Instagram: Photo app that you have received 100x

Instagram It exploded in the social media stage in late 2010, when a million users registered in just two months of its establishment, and the buyers soon began to express his interest in the application sharing application.

In April 2012, Facebook Declare The purchase of Instagram for about one billion dollars was cash and shares. She left the founder of Cosent Kevin Systrom, then 28 years, with about $ 400 million and Mike Crager, 25, with about $ 100 million; The rest was divided between investors and 11 other Instagram employees.

Although the day of payment was great, it was not permissible for the founders as they expected.

“I think the biggest lesson … entering a good amount of money very quickly, it was that the money itself is not the end. It does not make you happy. It does not solve health problems. It can help in these things.” Systrom He said In Sxsw in 2019.

The founders decided to partially sell because Zuckerberg allowed them to stay in Instagram; Systrom shadow as CEO and Krieger CTO To 2018. However, he also gave them a direct vision of the wealth they could have made on their own, as the image rose to a 100 billion dollars evaluation. Today, its value is about 114 billion dollars, according to KantarHowever, each of the net value of Cofounders will be in millions.

Krieger now serves the head of AI FIRM FIRM products, while Systrom has not updated it LinkedIn After I worked as an executive president of an artifact, the news assembly platform that the artificial intelligence was established by the duo after leaving Facebook. It was an artifact It has been purchased By Yahoo in 2024 for an unveiled amount.

Founder’s dilemma

There is no doubt that in each of these cases, the acquisition had a positive impact on the general success of each company. Although YouTube founders, Reddit or Instagram may have missed billions of wealth (Systrom, for example, billionaire situation today), their early sale provided security, resources and freedom that they may have never received.

A game remains almost impossible to predict whether startups can expand equally without the new parents of companies. But ultimately, these examples confirm the extent that the sale decision can be one of the most difficult and the entrepreneur he might take at all.

Did you sell your company early, or did one major decision completely change the course of your career?Send your story by email to [email protected].