When looking for a job, one of the critical things prospective employees consider is the benefits. Beyond healthcare, people hold stock options and spending accounts in high regard when choosing employment.
Take, for example, the folks at Global Data Consortium.
According to Axios, Raleigh, NC, tech entrepreneur Bill Spruill recently sold his startup for an undisclosed sum. Global Data Consortium (GDC) was just acquired by the owner of the London Stock Exchange.
Spruill and his co-founder Charles Gaddy raised a modest $5 million from investors during the company’s infancy. This small fundraising allowed employees to have a more significant share of equity in the company. Because of this, the two founders set it up so that employees who have enough equity receive significant payouts as a result.
While the acquisition details have yet to be disclosed, the GDC founder described the deal as a “Bronto-level transaction” (NetSuite acquired Bronto in 2015 for $200 million).
Whatever the final sales price was, approximately 20 employees of GDC are now millionaires.
“We’re minting over 25 millionaires,” Spruill explained to Axios about the outcome for some of the company’s earliest employees.
Now that the sale is final, Spruill revealed that he would step down as GDC’s CEO to focus on creating more significant pipelines for more diverse talent in the tech industry.
This new move is in line with his previous actions regarding diversity.
Based on the Axios report, Spruill led a campaign in 2020 to get more of North Carolina’s Triangle tech scene to put their cash reserves in Black-owned banks, including Durham’s M&F Bank, one of the oldest Black-owned financial institutions in the country.
A native of North Carolina, Spruill is “one of the Triangle’s most prominent Black tech founders.” Understanding some of the diversity challenges in the space, Spruill will use his reputation and influence in his next moves to continue to change that.
“How do I continue to boost minority involvement in tech?” Spruill told Axios. “That’s part of the next chapter.”
