You might have been successful in saving $55 a week as a gainfully employed professional. You might be more willing to risk $20k given that the situation in 7

You might have been successful in saving $55 a week as a gainfully employed professional. You might be more willing to risk $20k given that the situation in 7 years is "The company is IPOed and there exists a highly liquid market for its stock" versus "It is entirely possible that I pay $20k and get nothing of value in return." You might, given a similar situation, convince any number of reputable financial institutions to advance you $20k in the anticipation that you'll be able to pay it back with ease (and are shortly going to be the sort of customer that reputable financial institutions try very, very hard to make happy). You might simply benefit from having 7 years to find a few days and mental headspace to figure out what to do with your equity. Silicon Valley is rife with folks who lost exits, some small and some very-not-small, simply because in a stressful situation where they were switching jobs / apartments / marriages / etc day 91 came and went. This is invariably in employees' interest.