I don't know but you may have been the victim of 'liquidation preference' (and participation). Your perpetual startup never went public. Each of the investors,

I don't know but you may have been the victim of 'liquidation preference' (and participation). Your perpetual startup never went public. Each of the investors, seed, A, ... has a preference in case of a liquidity event (exit) over earlier investors and a participation (multiple) as well. Your RSU was just at the bottom of the heap and there was nothing left. The founders would have had something equivalent to your RSUs but ... they were doing the negotiation. For example, IIRC, Anthony Levandowski cut his employees out when he sold 510 to Google. (So it shouldn't have surprised anyone at Google when he later screwed them as well.) https://www.invigorlaw.com/key-term-sheet-provisions-liquidation-preference/ https://www.invigorlaw.com/key-term-sheet-provisions-liquida... Edit: the article even says it: Today, if you’re an employee you’re now are at the bottom of the stock preference pile. In this case, I'd only work for a startup if my preference seniority was equal to that of the founders. And the article says that too: If you’re one of the early senior hires, there’s no downside of asking for the same Restricted Stock Agreements (RSAs) as the founders.