[refurb]

Random question: When a company finally IPOs, how much equity are the top guys expected to hold onto?

I know it's common for founders to be allowed to cash out some of their equity during financing rounds, usually enough to make them comfortable (a few million).

The reason I ask is if you're Aaron Levie and Box IPOs, are you expected to not sell much of your remaining stake unless you leave the company? It just reminds me a little of the investment banks where partners understood that it was frowned upon if they sold their equity. Many of them lost everything when the banks collapsed (some would say rightfully so).

[drewvolpe]

Here's data on equity ownership at the time of IPO for 258 companies: http://www.slideshare.net/lebret/equity-in-258-high-tech-sta...

The average overall was 7.6%, but it varies a lot, from close to 0% (Zipcar) up to 28% (Amazon).