- Mark Zuckerberg divided the web when he gifted Priscilla Chan a 7-foot Roman statue of herself.
- It’s one other instance of how tech bros aren’t essentially taken with trendy reward developments.
An adage says brides ought to have one thing outdated, one thing new, one thing borrowed, and one thing blue on their marriage ceremony day.
But in the case of tech bros and the varieties of presents they like to provide and obtain, it is all in regards to the “one thing outdated.”
Tech staff are a number of the highest earners within the US. Business Insider’s Aaron Mok reported in March {that a} Dice research confirmed tech staff made a mean annual wage of $111,193 in 2023—almost double the quantity the typical full-time US employee makes, in line with wage information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So what do you get the tech bro in your life who can purchase themselves any of the standing symbols males are obsessive about these days with out draining their financial institution accounts?
Lupe Puerta, the previous international head of private buying at Net-a-Porter, mentioned the reply is historical past.
Puerta, who joined Net-a-Porter in 2004 and left in 2019 to launch a private buying platform, The Floorr, instructed Business Insider that, from her expertise, Silicon Valley sorts do not comply with present trend and life-style developments.
Tech bros wish to personal items of the previous nobody else can have
“I’m certain there are folks which can be like, ‘Look at my watch, and that is how a lot I’m price,'” she started, “however I feel past that, it is shopping for and accessing one thing actually particular that has plenty of that means.”
As current examples over time present, that normally interprets to one thing outdated.
In 2019, throughout Reddit’s annual Secret Santa reward trade, Bill Gates gave an array of collectible gadgets and a manuscript copy of “The Great Gatsby,” that includes notes hand-scrawled by F. Scott Fitzgerald whereas he was writing the 1925 bestseller.
Jeff Bezos reportedly purchased himself a 1964 Ed Ruscha portray in a Christie’s public sale for $52.5 million the next 12 months.
A 12 months after that, tech billionaire Larry Ellison briefly loaned two Vincent Van Gogh work he personally owns to an exhibition on the artist — a priceless reward to the artwork world.
And take a more moderen instance: the opinion-dividing seven-foot Roman-inspired statue Mark Zuckerberg gifted his spouse, Priscilla Chan, in August.
It might not be outdated, however as Zuckerberg indicated within the caption of his Instagram submit, the reward was meant to represent an Ancient Roman custom of gifting wives statues of themselves.
“Imagine the amount of cash that should have price,” Puerta mentioned. “It’s like shopping for a museum piece.”
Puerto added that the reward proves that these high-earners really feel a sure “thrill of proudly owning” or gifting somebody one thing that does not exist in most trendy designer shops.
Representatives for Zuckerberg, Gates, and Ellison didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Tech bros wish to personal a chunk of historical past
From her expertise, tech bros are likely to gravitate to collectibles, “every part from alcohol to automobiles,” and issues like historic watches worn by historic figures, similar to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It’s like “shopping for historical past,” she mentioned.
Puerta observed that male purchasers love Oktaaf, a well-liked European model. Started by a Spanish jeweler and a Belgian entrepreneur, the model buys archaeological “items from Egypt” and creates jewellery across the historic finds.
As of September, one of the crucial costly items listed on the corporate’s web site is a $6,500 bracelet comprised of a 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifact brushed with an 18-karat gold end.
“It’s unimaginable,” Puerta mentioned, including that almost all of Oktaaf’s “purchasers are males.”
So, in case you have a tech bro in your life, do not say I did not warn you what they may have on their vacation reward lists.
