Meet a mega-rich couple. This is Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. Yes, Fake. They created and sold one of the consummate web 2.0 companies, Flickr, for $25 million almost twenty years ago. The co-founders married and, a few years later, got divorced in 2007, then Butterfield created a new company, Slack, which has made him a billionaire. During their brief marriage, they had one child whose name is Mint.
Sixteen years have passed since the once-happy couple had their daughter, and Mint has lived a life of infinite privilege, growing up on palatial estates with access to a near-infinite amount of money. Here’s the only public photo of her.
A few days ago, it seems Mint had enough of her life. She didn’t just leave home (or leave mansion, I guess). She left and went straight into the belly of the beast: the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, which is by far the seediest, dirtiest, most dangerous part of the city. The media is, of course, freaking out.
And just to show how her unusual upbringing has affected her, we have this not-at-all surprising tidbit:
Sixteen years ago, when the baby who would be named Mint came into this world, she had the misfortune of being born into a fortune. As a stupid kid, I used to think it must be great to be rich. Now that I’ve spent most of my adult life surrounded by rich people, I’ve had a change of heart, particularly when it comes to being the child of rich parents. Simply stated, it’ll probably fuck you up.
In my own life, one of my son’s closest friends has been pulling the same kind of stunts that the aforementioned Ms. Butterfield has been doing, and I’m certain it’s because he grew up in a wealthy household. (As I’ve mentioned in the past, the Knight household has basically been the economic diversity participant in the elite prep schools of the Bay Area).
I had never heard of Mint Butterfield in my life, and I wish her no ill or harm. Based on the minuscule tidbit of data I have, however, I strongly suspect she may not make it into adulthood, and I think drowning in cash as a youngster has an awful lot to do with that.
