With company shares and contacts on their side, some of Facebook’s first employees have left the social networking giant to create start-ups or to “bankroll their friends,” reports The New York Times.
The article suggests that this could be one of Facebook’s long lasting legacies — “a new generation of tech tycoons looking to create or invest in, well, the next Facebook.”
As has happened with previous breakout successes from Silicon Valley, like Apple and Netscape and PayPal, each “public offering creates a new circle of tech magnates with money to invest,” points out NYT. “This one, though, with a jaw-dropping $100 billion valuation, will create a far richer fraternity.”
Some early executives from Facebook have already sold their shares and are now living with (and potentially investing with) millions of dollars.
“The history of Silicon Valley has always been one generation of companies gives birth to great companies that follow,” said 35-year-old Matt Cohler, employee No. 7 at Facebook and now a partner at Benchmark Capital. “People who learned at one set of companies often go on to start new companies on their own.”
“The very best companies, like Facebook,” he added, “end up being places where people who come there really learn to build things.” It’s worth noting that Cohler has invested in start-ups created by his earlier Facebook colleagues.
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