SAN FRANCISCO — Things are so hot in Silicon Valley that
it’s freaking people out.
As tech startups have rushed to go public and valuations
have soared, Aaron Rubin, a partner at Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management,
said his clients were in shock over their newfound wealth.
اضافة اعلان
When the pandemic hit a year ago, tech workers worried that
their startup stock might never pay off. The whiplash, plus general unease
about the economy, has now discouraged them from making the kinds of splurges
that often accompany overnight fortunes, Rubin said. Compared with past booms,
there is “more gratitude,” he said, and more plans for charity.
“Everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Rubin
said. “Maybe they buy a new Tesla or convertible, but they don’t go out and
start buying airplanes overnight.”
Silicon Valley’s cash-gushing, millionaire-minting initial
public offerings have been bigger and buzzier than ever. But in the pandemic,
the newly rich aren’t celebrating with the usual blowout parties and early
retirement into round-the-world travel.
They’ve adapted.
The parties are on Zoom, the tax talk is on Slack, the house
shopping is slightly less intense, and the vibe is cautious. It is a weird time
to become rich.
“People’s mindset is not in a place to be ostentatious,”
said Riley Newman, who was an early employee at Airbnb, which went public in
December and immediately topped $100 billion in value.
People have shifted their focus from vacation homes and
flashy cars to suburban homes and schooling, said Newman, who now runs Wave
Capital, a venture capital firm. “It is just different,” he added.
Over the past six months, at least 35 companies that were
founded in the San Francisco Bay Area — including Airbnb, DoorDash and the data
warehousing company Snowflake — have gone public for a combined market value of
$446 billion, according to a tally by The New York Times. Those companies’
“lockup periods,” which prevent insiders from selling most of their stock soon
after an IPO, will expire in the coming months, unleashing a wave of wealth.
Just a handful of those IPOs could mint an estimated 7,000
millionaires, according to an analysis by EquityBee, a platform that
facilitates startup equity transactions. The stream of IPOs has been large
enough that the tax income from them may wipe out some of California’s
projected budget shortfall.
Gourmet Bark
When tech startups went public before the pandemic, they
celebrated with rocket-shaped ice sculptures and fleets of 1980s bands.
Now companies are sending their employees party boxes for
Zoom gatherings.
Daniel Figone, owner of Handheld Catering and Events, has
recently delivered boxed dinners and snacks to homes for a number of workers at
Silicon Valley companies that went public. The boxes — which cost $45 to $100
each — can include housemade rubs, finishing salts, hot cocoa mix, gourmet
bark, fancy cheeses, fruit and Champagne. Inside, printed cards rivaling a
wedding invitation detail the login code for a Zoom gathering.
Top executives get even more: floral arrangements,
three-course meals and an on-site chef to finish the cooking and plate it,
Figone said. At some small outdoor gatherings, he has offered individual
“grazing cones” filled with snacks, instead of buffets and passed appetizers.
But all-company Zoom celebrations can feel a lot like
all-company Zoom meetings. So companies are also adding virtual Q&As with
famous authors or “Saturday Night Live” cast members, inspiring talks from TED
speakers, and even group meditation sessions led by famous practitioners, said
Jay Siegan, who runs Jay Siegan Presents, an entertainment agency in San
Francisco.
If there’s a musician — Alicia Keys, Train and John Legend
are top requests — the set is kept to one or two songs, he said.
Sprinter Vans
For Palantir, a data analytics company that went public in
September, Feb. 18 was “giraffe money” day. That was the first day that current
and former employees could cash out all of their shares after the company went
public.
In a Slack channel for former employees called Giraffe Money
— an apparent reference to wealth that can support casual giraffe ownership —
many anticipated their windfalls by sharing links, mostly in jest, to absurdly
expensive home listings and boats, one former employee said.
But in reality, techies are spending in very different ways.
Instead of fine art, they are buying NFTs, or nonfungible
tokens that represent ownership in pieces of digital art, memes or artifacts of
internet history.
Instead of round-the-world travel, they are piling into
Sprinter vans, the pandemic vacation essential. Jackie Conlin, a personal style
consultant to tech executives, said she had created “van wardrobes” consisting
of “comfy clothes that look put together but are oozing with laid-back vacation
vibes” for clients going on road trips.
Instead of designer dresses, they are hunting for new
outfits that look good on Zoom calls, virtual makeup lessons for the camera and
makeovers for their Zoom backgrounds. Conlin said she redecorates a client’s
Zoom room “to make whatever the other meeting attendees see look more cohesive,
stylish and pleasing to the eye.” Clients are also buying weekly “comfort”
gifts for friends and family like cozy blankets and robes, skin care items,
pajamas, and games.
And instead of luxury condos, they are after houses with
outdoor space, home gyms and good “Zoom rooms.”
J.T. Forbus, a tax manager at Bogdan & Frasco, a tax
accounting firm in San Francisco, said his clients had mostly avoided showoff
splurges. Their biggest expense, other than a house, is their financial
adviser.
“If they do get crazy and spend, it’s investing in crypto,”
Forbus said, referring to digital currencies.
Last year as Airbnb went public, former employees started
Equity for Impact, a program in which employees pledge to donate an unspecified
portion of their IPO proceeds to charity. So far, more than 400 people have
committed around $50 million of shares, which is halfway toward the group’s
goal of $100 million by the time Airbnb’s lockup period expires in June.
The focus on charity at the time of their windfall is a
change from past waves of the newly rich, Forbus said.
“Granted, they will get a tax deduction,” he said.
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