Let's say you raise $10m in preferred rounds and proceed for a few years, but it's not working. You eventually find a buyer that will acquire/acqui-hire your co

Let's say you raise $10m in preferred rounds and proceed for a few years, but it's not working. You eventually find a buyer that will acquire/acqui-hire your company for $5m. That $5m is not split evenly, it's distributed to the highest priority share classes first (after potentially paying off certain debts, notes, etc). So your Seed, Series A, etc will get paid out of the $5m – nothing is left for common. Common is the last to earn money, and options are part of the common class.