Charlie Ayers Net Worth

Google Jackpot: Before joining Google, Charlie worked as a backstage chef at music festivals. Through this gig he was periodically hired to prepare meals for touring bands, most notably the Grateful Dead. Charlie moved to the Bay Area to be closer to the Dead. In 1999 he decided to give up life on the road to become the corporate chef for a tiny internet startup called Google. He was employee #56. At the time Google was generating just $220,000 per year in revenue. Charlie was given 40,000 shares in Google. Those shares were worth $4 million on the day of the company’s IPO. Charlie left Google in 2005. By 2007, after dividends and stock splits, Charlie’s shares were worth $26 million. Had he held them for another decade they would have been worth as much as $50 million. If he held all shares until 2024, they would be worth more than $200 million. After leaving Google Charlie wrote a best-selling cookbook and consulted for several top tech firms.