This is pretty typical behavior for a lot of startups. I once witnessed a situation where management (knowing that most people's options were way underwater) go

This is pretty typical behavior for a lot of startups. I once witnessed a situation where management (knowing that most people's options were way underwater) got a 'top slice' agreement where X% of an acquisition would go straight to key personnel. Amusingly, this identical vague mechanism was given 2 different names: "Management top slice" when talking to investors/managers, and "Engineering top slice" when talking to the engineering staff. This ridiculous mechanism was never defined (and ultimately no acquisition occurred in that time-frame), arguments over it ultimately may have helped a few engineers get out so that was about all the impact it had. The lesson is not to count on verbal agreements. If they don't put anything on paper it's because they don't want to and don't value you enough to care, not because "the time isn't right" or similar nonsense.