3 ms·

> Note: stock options are not stocks. You're not given a share in the company, you're given the opportunity to invest in the company. You have to put money in t

> Note: stock options are not stocks. You're not given a share in the company, you're given the opportunity to invest in the company. You have to put money in to _potentially_ get money back. While pedantically true, in reality this is generally not the case. As long as you are still employed by the company that granted you the options, you do not have to exercise them ('invest') until you wish to sell them. What this means in practice is that nary a single dollar ever comes out of your pocket.

alpha_squared 6y ago
> As long as you are still employed by the company that granted you the options I think that's the key, which makes them fundamentally different. So, in the _very_ narrow scenario in which you happen to join a company that will IPO and that you're there from pre-IPO until post-IPO, yes -- they're nearly the same; you really just benefit from the difference of the strike price and public price. If you've spent time at the company, vested your options, and want to leave for just about any reason, it's nothing at all the same. I posit that a vast majority of startup departures fall under the latter scenario.