it depends on the company most companies take away your options 90 days after you leave and they are known as "golden handcuffs" because nobody wants to leave!

it depends on the company most companies take away your options 90 days after you leave and they are known as "golden handcuffs" because nobody wants to leave! Some companies like Lyft allowed early hires to keep options for up to 7 years. This can actually be a problem because there are SEC rules limiting private company stock (not option) ownership to 500 shareholders at most. Many companies let you exercise options when you leave by buying them. I did this at one company - but the owners were crooks - and when they raised a new funding round of $3,000,000 they just put it in their personal bank accounts of the CEO + 5 VPs and shut down the company!