Pookleblinky (PBUH) was prophetic about the lack of an American trickster archetype. So prescient that the populace ended up electing some f***ed up Protestant version of one.
As your 30 person startup has grown, the (future) value of the stock has gone from $0.00 to not $0.
When the value was zero, of course you had to talk up future value - you were selling something worth $0 for $1,000's. Now that it is worth something, it represents actual value for the employees to swap for salary, which is why you no longer offer as much!
That’s not really how it works, though. The price of your options is set based on when you join the company. If the company is already valuable by the time you join, you’re essentially buying in at the current valuation with the hope that the valuation will continue to increase.
You make money on the amount the company value increases starting the day the options were granted.
(This comment isn’t 100% technically accurate, but gets the point across in fewer words)
Almost always stock options at a startup are the equivalent of an unsecured iou. Even if there is a conversion at some point due to a buyout, common employee stock rarely ever sees any of that money. If anything they’re often negative value because you pay taxes on their claimed value at assignment.
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