TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

The Year That Made Me: Kulveer Taggar

30 pointsby langerover 16 years ago

5 comments

jsteeleover 16 years ago
Ahhh good ol' Kulveer. Time to revisit my old comment from 292 days ago:<p>---- As the first poster said, don't believe everything you read. The media is all about hype and thousandaires don't roll off the page.<p>The details: the acquisition price was $5 Million which was made up of $2 Million Cash and $3 Million Stock.<p>There were 3 founders, Harjeet Taggar, Kulveer Taggar, Patrick Collison. Each founder held 20.89% of the company at the time of sale. YCombinator held 4.38%. Paul Graham personally held 0.96%.<p>20.89% of $5 Million is $1,044,500. Of course they only have 40% of that in cash and the other 60% is in stock. The stock was $2.69 the day the deal closed. It's now trading at $2.40. If they still have their shares, they are worth 10% less which is a loss of $62,670.<p>That is all before tax. Factor in capital gains tax of 10-15% before the stock drop and you are already out of millionaire territory.<p>On an unrelated note, each of the founders are now making a base salary $100,000 at Communicate.com. This does not include bonuses, options, etc.<p>Source: <a href="http://www.edgar-online.com/bin/cobrand/?doc=A-1108630-00011.." rel="nofollow">http://www.edgar-online.com/bin/cobrand/?doc=A-1108630-00011...</a>.<p>----<p>So: Cash (40%): $1,044,500 * 40% = $417,800<p>Stock (60%): March 25, 2008- LIVC 2.69 $1,044,500 * 60% = $626,700 $626,700 / 2.69 = 232,974 Shares<p>January 23, 2009 - LIVC 0.41 232,974 * 0.41 = $95,519<p>"to dot-com millions in Silicon Valley - all in just over a year" - article<p>Yeah right. I hope he sold his shares in March, cause your stock is down 83% and that means he made barely over $500k, before tax!
评论 #449422 未加载
评论 #449855 未加载
评论 #451439 未加载
axodover 16 years ago
The sad thing is, they didn't seem to make something people wanted...<p>So I don't see there being any useful advice here, apart from maybe "Get to know lots of people, one of which might buy your co. regardless of its merit".<p>Also the whole saga reminds me of the sad days toward the end of the dotcom bubble, when teenagers were making 'startups', without product, and planning on an exit as soon as possible.<p>As for live current, just because you own cricket.com, doesn't mean you have any traffic going to it. Premium domain names are just ego trips...
评论 #450935 未加载
评论 #449489 未加载
alaskamillerover 16 years ago
The interview rehashes the founder narrative and nothing on the really interesting things:<p>1) How were you able to convince Evan Williams to be an adviser initially?<p>2) Why was it that you were able to raise 180,000 pounds (about US$240k) but it was a YC seed round that got you to come to Silicon Valley?<p>3) What were your strategies in wooing the likes of Paul Buchheit and Chris Sacca?
评论 #449888 未加载
评论 #449378 未加载
byrneseyeviewover 16 years ago
Sadly, it sounds like Live Current was not the right company to sell to (or taking their stock was not the right way to sell to them):<p><a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=live+current" rel="nofollow">http://finance.google.com/finance?q=live+current</a><p>I wonder how many startups succeed even if they're attached to a sinking parent company.
pointover 16 years ago
This is not a rags to riches stories. This is the story of how a guy with a silver spoon rose to get a golden spoon.<p>I'm not saying it's bad, but it's just not too helpful to those who did not start off with such good cards.
评论 #449388 未加载
评论 #451437 未加载
评论 #450947 未加载