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Hmm. So, just to clarify, "After the 1 year cliff, if you decide to leave you can exercise any options that you've vested up to that point" If the options are

• elbrodeur 16y ago
  A share is a part of the company. You are, essentially, becoming an investor. This is why companies like Google are forced to go public: They have too many employees and investors who own parts of the company, and the SEC's threshold says: "After 500 people own a portion of your company you have to go public; being private is too much of a risk to the shareholders." So whether you get preferred (which is usually issued shortly after the investment or founding) or common, you're unlikely to see that piece of the company be worth anything until the company sells, goes public or issues dividends. In the case of a preferred shareholder, you can also get some liquidity in the event of bankruptcy or shutting the company down. To put it simply, when you are given options, you can exercise them by purchasing them at a very low valuation. Until those shares are worth something, you can not sell them.
  • anon330 16y ago
    Right. I understand that these things are done to retain employees, so it's really not even remotely worth working at this company unless I'm committed to doing so for the 4 years until an exit. I guess the real thing to figure out at this point is whether I want to walk now, or stick around--- and that's basically just a function of whether the options offered are sufficient.