Simply, the 1% ‘shares’ were actually shares in a company that only begins existing if the company you worked for surpasses some value $X. Example, if the compa

Simply, the 1% ‘shares’ were actually shares in a company that only begins existing if the company you worked for surpasses some value $X. Example, if the company is sold for $X + $50 million then you have 1% of $50mm. The con with these agreements is that you, the little-person-with-no-leverage, you are not told the X while you are working there. Ask your CFO, they will say in a practiced tone, “We don’t give out that information”. IMO the best way to tell if the company is a winner, is to see big growth in sales/market size, especially after funding rounds. If the company is on its third funding round with no revenue and no clients then it’s one of these weird VC zombie dogs that manage to get funding because of spectacular bullshit artistry by the CEO (likely with a sales background). In which case your shares are worthless but the pay/gig might be interesting.