This is called a PLP (Private Liquidity Plan). The comments here are kind of vaguely negative but it's actually not a bad deal for employees. The main problem i

This is called a PLP (Private Liquidity Plan). The comments here are kind of vaguely negative but it's actually not a bad deal for employees. The main problem is that most pre-IPO companies can't afford it. It uses up capital that would otherwise go into operations.[1] Where it may make sense is in so-called "private IPOs", i.e. those 9 or 10 digit dollar rounds. There's enough money there to hand out. In olden days, companies would have been public by then and employees would have had liquidity. Planatir raised $880M last year so, yeah, they can afford it.[2] [1] http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/30/need-to-cash-out-a-bit-pre-ipo-consider-a-private-liquidity-program/ http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/30/need-to-cash-out-a-bit-pre... [2] https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/palantir-has-raised-880-million-at-a-20-billion-valuation/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/palantir-has-raised-880-mi...