Artist who painted Facebook's first office chose stock over $60,000 cash. Yes, he made a lot of money

An artist who was given the opportunity to paint Facebook's first headquarters became a millionaire overnight, thanks to a smart payment choice. American artist and musician David Choe, who recently appeared in the Netflix show "Beef", was given the option to take company stock or cash as payment for the job. While Choe initially demanded cash, as he didn't believe in the company, he later reconsidered and eventually made $200 million after Facebook went public. 

A clever decision indeed

Choe shared the story of his multimillion-dollar windfall in an episode of CNBC’s “The Filthy Rich Guide". He said that apparently, in the early 2000s, his work caught the eye of Sean Parker, the notorious founder of Napster. When Parker became the president of Facebook in 2005, he brought in Choe to paint Silicon Valley murals in the original headquarters of Facebook.

Choe thought the early iterations of social media like MySpace and Facebook were ridiculous, and eventually agreed to do the job but for a hefty sum of $60,000. He told Parker that if he wanted the entire building to be done it would cost him 60 grand. To this, Parker offered Choe to take 0.25% stock in the company or take the cash, as per Daily Mail. 

Choe felt like it was a risky decision, as he said  “Facebook was a joke" at the time. He felt that there was no guarantee that the business would amount to something in the future and his stock may end up being worthless. However, as per Choe, Parker insisted he take the stock, which he did. 

A couple of years later, Facebook hit its blockbuster IPO at the stock exchange making its thousands of associates, including Choe, millionaires overnight. Facebook went public at $38 making Choe's stock options worth about $200. Today as Meta, the stock trades at over $500.  According to the Daily Mail, before Facebook's IPO, it was common for the company to offer 0.1 to 0.25 stock options to many of its ‘advisers’. These associates also made tens and hundreds of millions following the IPO.

Here's how Choe spent his millions

Choe spent his millions in unique ways. As per a CNBC report, he once organized an elaborate nationwide scavenger hunt with a top prize of $100,000 that he kept in a shoebox in his room. He also gave away a flight to Los Angeles to the winner for them to claim the money and a custom painting from himself.

He also organized an invite-only exhibition in Los Angeles, dubbed “The Choe Show.” While the show was free, participants were required to go through an extensive application process and had to sign a confidentiality agreement, to keep the contents of the exhibition a secret. 

Choe has also come under fire with allegations of sexual assault. Following the release of "Beef" a clip of Choe from the 2014 DVDASA podcast resurfaced, where he made some controversial comments. 

The artist later had to release a statement and apologize for making any comments that hurt people's sentiments and assured that he was only joking at the time.  He further stated that he had no history of sexual assault either.