It can be hard to sell those shares when there's no market, no? I recently left a small startup in which the AMT hit would've been $26k, with no possible way to

It can be hard to sell those shares when there's no market, no? I recently left a small startup in which the AMT hit would've been $26k, with no possible way to recoup that from selling the shares themselves (outside of a scheme like the ESO Fund, which issues non-recourse loans on the upside of a stock option sell, covering you for the tax and exercise costs.)