How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub

http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/10/18/how-i-turned-down-300k.html

by mojombo • 18 years ago

224 68 18 years ago

tom.preston-werner.com

Sujan• 18 years ago

definitely a nice post to start a new blog.

hbien2• 18 years ago

Inspiring stuff, thanks a lot.

bbgun• 18 years ago

Get over yourself.

fallentimes3• 18 years ago

Are you the one that offered him 300k?

time_management• 18 years ago

I don't git your antagonism toward him.

LogicHoleFlaw• 18 years ago

Seen on /.:

"This is a thread for talking about git, not for being one!"

raju• 18 years ago

Great post. Congrats on a great idea, great execution, a great team. And Good Luck.

alaskamiller• 18 years ago

"We publicly launched the site on April 10th. TechCrunch was not invited."

fallentimes3• 18 years ago

That one made me laugh, but I liked this one better:

>When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say “wow, that was an adventure,” not “wow, I sure felt safe.”

alyx• 18 years ago

Interesting how apparently adventurous parts of life and safe parts of life are mutually exclusive.

tbrooks• 18 years ago

This is my favorite line:

If you want a recipe for restless sleep, I can give you one. Add one part “what will my wife think” with 3,000 parts Benjamin Franklin; stir in a “beer anytime you damn well please” and top with a chance at financial independence.

azharcs• 18 years ago

Totally inspiring stuff. "When in doubt, don't follow the crowd". Works for me.

sofal3• 18 years ago

Except when the crowd is running and screaming.

eru• 18 years ago

Especially when the crowd is running and screaming.

The T-Rex will probably follow the biggest chunk of meat.

raganwald4• 18 years ago

To put things in perspective, Microsoft also paid Jerry Seinfeld something like a million dollars a minute for his on-screen time, or $183,000 a second. $300,000 over three years (almost 95 million seconds) works out to be 1.73162648 nano-jerries. Nice to know what you're worth.

bigbang• 18 years ago

"Nice to know what you're worth."

Should be - Nice to know what Microsoft considers worth

raganwald4• 18 years ago

or what I left out "...to Microsoft."

abossy• 18 years ago

It's not easy being the most famous comedian in the world.

ken• 18 years ago

Good point, but isn't a million dollars a minute more like $16,000 a second, not $183,000 a second? So he's really worth more like 19 nanojerries. Not nearly as bad as you make it sound. :-)

raganwald4• 18 years ago

A nanojerry here, a nanojerry there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/170.html

tspiteri• 18 years ago

Also, he's counting the on-screen time, not the real time Seinfeld had to give for travel/acting/whatever.

ido• 18 years ago

1 minute on screen probably required a lot more than 1 minute of work though.

Films that lasts 2 hours normally take months/years to make.

kleneway• 18 years ago

Tom, if you read this, think about turning on comments. Would have liked to have given you a nice "Great post, congrats!" on the post directly. :)

mojombo2• 18 years ago

Isn't that what comments here at HN are for? =) In all seriousness, from past adventures in blogging, I'm sick of managing a commenting system of my own. I love HN and the people here, so this is the only place I plan to notify when I post. I'm working on a different blogging methodology this time around that I'll talk about it in my next post.

hbien2• 18 years ago

Have you thought about using http://disqus.com ?

dawie2• 18 years ago

The next question: Will they turn down $3 million from an acquirer?

mrtron• 18 years ago

I think thats extremely easy to answer.

If you are willing to turn down a 6 figure salary + 300k, you will not settle for halfish of 3 million with way higher risk. Especially if that buyout forced you to work at a large company too, which he doesn't seem interested in.

sokoloff• 18 years ago

I'm not sure that's so clear. Suppose we say $200K is the "6 figure salary." That's getting paid for 6 years of work right now, and even if you have to put in 12 months at the acquirer to fully vest the $1.5mm, that's getting paid $1.7mm for a year of work (reckoning from this point forward).

I'm not saying that's a slam-dunk deal, but it's a far cry better than 1/5th that amount...

run4yourlives• 18 years ago

Something tells me they aren't in it for a big pay day.

dawie2• 18 years ago

I meant it sarcastically...

jbenz• 18 years ago

You're the best! Around! Nothing's ever gonna keep you down!

Great story. I appreciated the Karate Kid and Indiana Jones references.

lyime• 18 years ago

A true entrepreneur.

blader• 18 years ago

Way to go Tom. You and Chris are two of hackers I respect the most on this planet, so I'm sure you guys are going to be ludicrously successful, if you aren't already.

Don't forget your ex-coworker when you guys make it big.

durdn• 18 years ago

I liked this story very much. I think the key decision point in the post is exemplary. I took a similar decision 4-5 months ago. I can recognize my thoughts and feelings perfectly.

The moment I took the decision to leave the company, my well paying job as Team Lead for total insecurity, adventure but freedom and fun was a jolt of energy.

An energy that permeates my life to this day. There is no comparison between doing something because you're told to and doing what you love. The act of creation and the sense of freedom are in themselves an incredible reward.

moonpolysoft2• 18 years ago

Great read, but I have to say that I'm disappointed that Tom felt the need to publish actual numbers. There are other folks still working at Powerset/MS who would rather that the details of our offers stay confidential. Very classy, choosing self promotion over the financial privacy of former coworkers.

ghshephard• 18 years ago

Why on earth would you think that someone discussing their Retention Bonus would have any relevance on what yours was? Just like there are employees of a company who receive $200K/year and those who receive $50K/year, there are those who receive $300K Retention bonuses and others who receive $20K retention bonuses. Or receive no retention bonus and are put on "Transition Plan" - or hell, are just laid off outright with 2 weeks severance + vacation. (I've always thought that that 160 Hours of vacation everyone in the valley stocks up on is a way of adding 4 weeks of severance as they eventually get laid off)

moonpolysoft2• 18 years ago

Well, if you made 50k a year and there was someone in a comparable position bragging about their 200k/yr how would it make you feel? How would your boss take it? How would you deal with the situation if you were the boss?

Companies make offers in confidence for a reason. I'm sure that Tom's business partners wouldn't appreciate him posting about their revenue anywhere public. The same principle applies here.

wayne• 18 years ago

Am I the only person who finds this insane...? Walking away from over a half mil over 3 years! GitHub is cool, but is working at Microsoft for a few years _that_ bad?

ChaitanyaSai• 18 years ago

Microsoft helped price his skills, and their value will surely not diminish in three years. So, it is more like putting off the opportunity of making $300,000 now by three years. Having accepted the offer now could have made him more risk averse three years down the line (in the face of a more tangible opportunity cost in terms of lost paychecks). In fact, it is a very rational choice if your window for evaluating expected outcomes is five years or more.

Tritis• 18 years ago

He certainly won't be less in three years.

Allocator2008• 18 years ago

Well written article to be sure. However let me say what a lot of folks here I bet are thinking but don't want to actually post: they would give their left-you-know-what for a 300K over three years offer from Microsoft!! I darn sure would, and I am not afraid to admit that! :-)

sofal3• 18 years ago

This reminds me of the part in "It's a Wonderful Life" where Mr. Potter offers George Bailey a job.

Anyone remember that?

plinkplonk2• 18 years ago

"they would give their left-you-know-what for a 300K over three years offer from Microsoft"

I am missing something here. 300K over 3 years is 100k /year. Assuming you are drawing a decent salary in the United States this effectively doubles your salary. Would you sell your left-you-know-what for a job that doubles your salary?

Some context: I make over 100K US $ (and that is in India. Expenses are much lower here, than say in Silicon Valley. I have many friends who make similar amounts of money).

I wouldn't automatically accept a job at Microsoft just because they double that amount, especially if the alternative is working on an idea/code base I love full time. I could live on about a 1000 $ after taxes (I am single and have no debt) if I were working on something world changing with brilliant people I respect and can learn from.

I am sure I am missing something. maybe the payout is 300 K US $ / year? (though it doesn't read that way) That is more tempting to be sure. Even for that amount I still wouldn't give my left-you-know-what :-)

nanijoe• 18 years ago

Considering that you sold Gravatar previously, this was probably less of a difficult decision for you than it would have been for many. For others who are 29, married and thinking of starting a family(not saying that you are), a guaranteed > $600,000 (salary + $300k) over 3 years might not be such a bad thing

sofal3• 18 years ago

Hey, us family men like adventure too! We just can't live in a cardboard box in San Francisco, or pretty much anywhere in California for that matter (my wife was a clarinet major, not a lawyer).

It doesn't take six figures to raise a family, California aside.

qhoxie• 18 years ago

I don't think he was claiming that it was a bad thing, it just was not the best for him given his inspiration from GitHub.

charlesju• 18 years ago

Tom,

I only know you through your service that has made my transition into the Rails world infinitely easier. I commend you for your efforts and producing a web application that actually has a business model and yet helps the community at the same time. I'm probably going to sign up with your service as soon as my projects jumps into Heroku (they don't use SVN, they use Git).

Tom, you might be one of my new role models, but dude, get a real blog going, I want to subscribe to you!

louislouis• 18 years ago

The lack of a page footer was very confusing, but great read nonetheless.

nazgulnarsil• 18 years ago

I see a lot of this on here and it is understandable given the "startup attitude" that is necessary. But It does kinda bother me that people brag about turning down money.

I get the whole idea behind it. By turning down money you are reaffirming that life isn't about money and sometimes we have to take a little risk to do something that will make us happier yadda yadda yadda.

Just please keep in mind the amount of resources that an amount of money like 300k represents. Many people don't have the opportunity to make an equivalent amount in an entire lifetime of work. If the urge ever arises to be smug about how you turned down $x amount, please keep this in mind. We are a group whose skill set happens to be very valuable because we were born into circumstances that have allowed us to maximize our advantages (time, place, parents). It's humbling when you realize how much luck was involved.

How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub

Related Stories