b/c you can sell them at that point, the shares today are illiquid and they'd probably have to do something like a prepaid variable forward to be able to afford to exercise and pay tax (~23% of FMV - strike price) we're talking millions of dollars for early employees who didn't do an 83b election.

once airbnb IPOs they could do either of the following:

* Cashless (exercise and sell to cover: sell enough of your shares to cover the purchase price and applicable fees and taxes.

* Cashless (exercise and sell): sell it all

from friends who have sold its more in the 15% commission range, there's also a fair amount of tax and legal headaches.

- replying to myself since there's a max threading depth on HN?

15% seems excessive...

You could probably find a buyer yourself and work directly with lawyers to make it happen at a much lower flat rate instead of commission if you have many millions worth.

There seems to be a few variables associated with loss of reply button... looks like it returned. Maybe minimum and maximum time limits, max thread depth, other person is Re-editing...

You clearly know more about this since it affects you personally. But airbnb shares aren’t that illiquid. I purchased some myself in a secondary market. You might lose 5% to commission, which I guess is enough to want an ipo if you have a lot of money tied up there.

How/where can one purchase Airbnb shares? Is there a minimum amount needed to be purchased?

The minimum varies from $20k to $500k depending on platform and target company. Hard to find and in high demand shares are at the higher end.

Thanks. What platform/website is used to buy shares like this?

What site/market did you use? That's an interesting concept I had never heard of!

The company I used Equidate got renamed then acquired by sharespost. equityzen has lower minimum investments.