Joined a company 2.5 years pre-IPO, and made about ~200k pre-tax (but I waited until after the IPO to exercise as I didn't want the risk) at lock-up, with anoth

Joined a company 2.5 years pre-IPO, and made about ~200k pre-tax (but I waited until after the IPO to exercise as I didn't want the risk) at lock-up, with another ~400k still vesting. Worked at another company that supposedly on the IPO track. Didn't buy my shares, and they ended up being acquired in a fire sale and gave 1 penny per share to those that did exercise. Company had gone through three rounds of layoffs ("normal trimming down before you IPO" lol), and I still had friends that exercised their shares. For me, I'm willing to take the tax hit by waiting to exercise since I've seen so many companies fail.