It's hard to have an intelligent discussion when the opposing side makes comments like these (from the article):
"UNTIL the money is given away, It amounts to very little more than air. Better that we raise their taxes to pay down the deficit and fix the infrastructure that they helped destroy NOW and worry about what lucky people get their giveaways or more importantly those in need who don't."
This kind of thinking baffles me - where did this entitlement culture come from?
That's because Dorfman is not in philanthropy for the sake of helping anyone, he's about power and control. When pioneers of industry enter into his field with their own money and do a much more effective job at allocating it, it removes the need for the social and economic moochers that Dorfman represents.
Agree with you completely, people like Dorfman disgust me. I guess he forgot that Gates etc never had to give any of their money to anyone, much less their own personal effort and time.
One note from the article that is interesting is that neither Google nor Microsoft pay dividends to shareholders. Presumably, if they did then instead of building up massive cash hoards they would allow the market to more efficiently allocate this money.
Of course, shareholders buying Google shares know this so there's nothing shady going on here, but shareholders who invest in Google are saying that they trust management to make better decisions about how to use the money to grow the business than they would themselves having that cash. I think this is pretty standard thinking in modern investing but I don't believe this was always the case.
Hi paulsingh - thanks for the input. Agreed on setting it up outside the existing company that the consulting is done.
If we did it in the C-Corp, do you have any advice for how to handle the equity? Do both founders vest into it over time?
Not implying this would happen as both parties are relatively reasonable in this situation, but in situations where the companies aren't split equally, what's to prevent the majority stakeholder from diluting the minority stakeholder to nothing or to change the terms of the agreements themselves?