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Comment by ricardobeat | Hacker News Reader

I’m astounded he amassed $500+ million even before this. Loopt can’t have earned him more than one digit, are YC partners paid this well?

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Not just being partner, but what sounds like some extraordinary generosity by Paul Graham, new in the WSJ article cited by OP:

> Hydrazine bought out a portion of startup shares owned by Graham, a transaction that gave Altman stakes in some of the hottest companies backed by Y Combinator. The sale hasn’t been previously reported.

https://archive.is/x2hx4#selection-2672.0-2672.1

Depending on what companies and how much, that could have been an extraordinary windfall.

If you read the WSJ article, his second investment was $15,000 for 2% of Stripe

Nice. A tiny fraction of the opportunity cost of working as a founding engineer, people come to you to be vetted, and you can shotgun-approach it. Most of us are in the wrong business.

As opposed to partners in other VCs? Successful VCs make good money, thanks to performance fees; say, 20% of the profit.

edit: I don't know the specifics of Altman's case.

> thanks to performance fees

Based on public reporting, Altman's wealth came from his family office piggybacking alongside YC versus his share of carry in YC's funds.

What does this mean for dummies? Altman family was already rich?

> What does this mean for dummies?

He sold Loopt for $40mm and then invested his share of that into start-ups like Stripe. (That investment alone should have taken him past $100mm.)

Oh wow, wish I had just 1% of his wealth

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