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For those who want to gain some context on how such a thing could happen, I recommend the book Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson [1]. There's a goo

• prepend 9y ago
  I second this recommendation. This article reminded me of the Venture Deals section where they break down the different kinds of capitalization and payouts in different scenarios. While the examples are written for founders, it’s also useful for any employee with shares trying to figure out their value. Most importantly for employees joining a company to get the info to make the decision whether to join. Or for employees thinking about how to treat their options or limited shares. I’ll add that for a few companies, when I asked the necessary questions then hiring manager or founder either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. So, like another commenter’s advice, I valued the shares at zero. This meant sometimes I didn’t join, but sometimes I did. Almost always my zero valuation was accurate, but once I got a pleasant surprise.