Are you a VP? How the duck do you make $1M a year, liquid, otherwise? A $500M exit isn't so strange if you join a legit and successful company though. You can

Are you a VP? How the duck do you make $1M a year, liquid, otherwise? A $500M exit isn't so strange if you join a legit and successful company though. You can leverage the equity by puting it in your Roth IRA, this avoids tax liabilities (although it's inaccessible till you get old). Even still, equity is taxed as capital gains, not income. Like others have said, you need to build something you love, otherwise you will just have a different pair of poorer handcuffs. Make sure your 1%are not common shares that can be diluted,although I suspect you already know that.