I live in SV and worked at a unicorn fairly early on for a few years. I understood the risk involved and tried to treat the equity as such: worth nothing until

I live in SV and worked at a unicorn fairly early on for a few years. I understood the risk involved and tried to treat the equity as such: worth nothing until it can be sold for something no matter what it says on paper. Of course that's easier said than done. As far as I can tell there haven't been murmurings of panic. It seems like a lot of these companies are doing ok enough. There's potential & they are "taking time to get it right" before going public. And they haven't had trouble finding large enough investment money to keep them going. It's kind of painful to have been an employee at these places though because the wait is long. You were under compensated salary-wise relative to market while you worked there and the equity might be worth nothing or you might have to wait 8 years to see. That's part of the reason why I next want to work at a public company where the stock actually has value when it vests.