Wiz, Google, and the Rare Power of Venture-Scale Returns

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Last week, Google agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for a staggering $32 billion. It’s one of the largest software acquisitions in history, and it’s not just a win for Google or Wiz’s founders.

It’s a win for 1,700 of Wiz’s employees, who are now reportedly millionaires.

Let that sink in:

One startup. One acquisition. Seventeen hundred new millionaires.

These outcomes don’t happen by accident. They’re only produced from the perfect mix of ingredients coming together at the right time: Amazing product, team, company culture, timing, and critically, tax policy 😅. But, importantly, you only see returns like this in venture capital.

In the US, stock options and equity grants are a core part of startup compensation. But more importantly, the tax system is designed to make equity actually work. When structured well (usually through Incentive Stock Options, or ISOs), employees pay no tax when the options are granted or exercised. Instead, they pay capital gains tax (15–20%) when they eventually sell their shares, and only if those shares make money. This system allows employees to participate in the upside of the company without being penalised early on. It makes wealth creation possible.

The VC Winners: Massive Returns, Rare Multiples]

The early investors in Wiz didn’t just make great returns - they made generational ones. Here’s a breakdown:

• Cyberstarts: Invested just $6.4M
   💥 Estimated return: $1.3 billion (a 225x return)
  

• Sequoia Capital: Invested $120M
   💥 Estimated return: $3 billion (a 25x return)
  

• Index Ventures: Estimated return: $3.5 billion

• Insight Partners: Estimated return: $2.6 billion

• Greenoaks: Estimated return: $2 billion

These are not normal investment outcomes. This isn’t real estate. It’s not public equities. It’s not fixed income. These are the kinds of outcomes only possible in venture capital. An asset class built around the power of exponential growth. And as you can see from the 1700 freshly minted millionaires, its not just the VCs that prosper. And stories like Wiz are not unique in the US.

A Pattern of Wealth Creation

Think of other legendary exits:

• Facebook’s IPO (2012) created thousands of paper millionaires.

• Airbnb’s IPO (2020) turned early employees into angel investors overnight.

• Stripe, still private, has already minted hundreds of employee millionaires through secondary sales.

• Even NVIDIA, now a trillion-dollar company, recently disclosed that 78% of their employees are millionaires, with 1 in 2 worth over $25 million.

This is the flywheel in action:

Equity creates wealth → wealth creates reinvestment → reinvestment creates more startups. It's not just about money. It's about building a sustainable innovation ecosystem.

The Venture Capital Model: High Risk, Rare Rewards

Venture capital is often misunderstood. Yes, most startups fail. Yes, it’s risky. But when it works, it really works. A single investment like Cyberstarts' stake in Wiz can return more than an entire fund. That’s why venture capital is fundamentally a power-law business: a few winners drive the majority of returns.

Let’s compare that to other asset classes:

• Public markets might return 7–10% annually.

• Real estate can return 10–15% in a good year.

• Private equity might return 3x over 5–7 years.

But venture capital? It’s one of the few places where 10x, 25x, or even 1000x outcomes are possible. Not probable, but possible. And when they happen, they change everything.

The Missed Opportunity

The impact of this isn’t just financial, it’s cultural and systemic. When a US startup exits, and hundreds of employees become wealthy and VCs make mega returns, it helps finance economic growth.

That’s what happened after Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, Stripe (yet to IPO but has provided major returns already), and more. And that’s what will happen after Wiz. 

Unfortunately, in Europe, this flywheel is stalled before it ever begins. Even when startups succeed, most will either IPO in the US or be acquired by a US company. Still great for the VCs, but the upside rarely reaches European employees in a meaningful way. And when it does, much of it is swallowed by tax before it can be put to work again.

Other ways to participate

Deals like Wiz, show us what is possible when a company gets everything right. 1700 employees turned millionaires is incredible but sadly this wouldn’t happen in Europe because of poor tax policy. But there are other ways to participate emerging. VC opportunities in general, are reserved for institutional investors and the ultra-wealthy. But that’s starting to change. In both the U.S. and Europe, platforms are emerging to open up access to early-stage investing so more people can participate in these types of outcomes, even without writing huge cheques. In fact, that’s exactly what we’e doing at Shuttle.

Wiz was a product of brilliant execution, strong backing, and favourable conditions. But it’s also a reminder that venture capital is unlike any other asset class.

It’s high-risk.
It’s long-term.
It’s hard to access.

But when it works, it changes lives at scale. That’s what makes it so powerful. And that’s why more investors should be paying attention.

What we’ve been working on at Shuttle

• Collecting customer feedback to improve the user experience

• Planning and recording some new video content

• Working to finalise our first Series A investment

The Unsophisticated Investor is brought to you by Scott & Rob, the founders of Shuttle. We’re both sick of private markets being a playground exclusive to the ultra-wealthy so we started a company to challenge the status-quo. Shuttle’s singular focus is to unlock private markets for Millennial and Gen Z retail investors and help them build wealth through the highest performing private market opportunities.

Scott & Rob
Shuttle Co-Founders