Interesting article in NY Times.
{{ As Trevor Hise was getting ready to graduate from college in 2011, his parents wanted him to take what they saw as a stable job at General Electric. But Mr. Hise had landed an internship at a start-up he loved. Against his parents’ advice, he stayed for a full-time job at that young company for the next 12 years.
The start-up was Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Today, Mr. Hise has more than 100,000 SpaceX shares that he earned from his time working there. With the rocket maker expected to go public this week at $135 a share, Mr. Hise’s SpaceX stock is likely worth at least $13.5 million — a sum that has left him in disbelief.
“The magnitude of this has been ridiculous,” said the 37-year-old, who worked as a SpaceX launch engineer and now considers himself semiretired.
{snip}
More than 4,400 current and former SpaceX employees are likely to become millionaires in the I.P.O., according to an analysis by Hill.com, a San Francisco-based investment platform. Of those, about 400 are expected to earn $100 million or more.
{{ snip }}
Not all SpaceX employees kept their shares. Some thought the company would never go public, especially since Mr. Musk talked about his disdain for public companies and how they had to keep disclosing information every few months to shareholders. Rumors circulated among some workers that early SpaceX employees had traded in their stock for restaurant gift cards, like Chili’s. Those employees are now consumed by regret, according to multiple SpaceX workers. }}
That’s the first I’ve heard of the “restaurant gift card” liquidity event.
intercst