Jason Hasselkus

Remember the story of Dee Ann SCHERNING, the secretary at Netscape that became an instant millionaire once the Netscape stock went public? Well that was back in 1999 and boy how things have changed since then. Or have they? Let me introduce you to Shannon Hermes who is the latest of non-boardroom employees who have struck it rich working for just the right technology company. You can read Shannon’s story here, but I’ll give you the gist of the story.
Google the search engine giant decides that the technology that Chad Hurley and Steve Chen put together, they just can’t live without, plus they did a much better job that Google video. So Chad and Steve had this little website called YouTube and they needed people to work for them. This is where Shannon comes into play; she’s their office manager and receptionist. Now according to a regulatory filing by Google, Hermes is worth $1.3 million in Google stock (GOOG). Not bad for the person that had to take all those phone calls and offer people coffee in the waiting room.
However, Hermes isn’t the only one besides the founders who stand to make a ton of cash off the purchase. Christina Brodbeck, a senior user-interface designer, is now worth at least $8.9 million, and Micah Jody Schaffer Shebar is roughly worth $1.63 million. Not bad for 2007. Maybe the dot com days are back? Nah, they just got lucky that Google couldn’t design something better, so they found someone who did and were willing to pay for it. But ask anyone on the street, and unless they’ve been in a shell for the last few years they have seen and probably used YouTube. It’s a fun little site and the people behind it are getting paid handsomely for it.