Having right of first refusal doesn't mean they can veto a sale- it means they can buy the shares at the offered price instead. Either way the seller gets to sell their shares.

It makes it difficult to attract buyers though- why go through all the due diligence when Stripe could just exercise their right to buy the shares instead of you at the same price you would have paid?

Still, different from being able to veto the sale and block it entirely.

From the buyer's perspective, it's as good as a veto.

It’s a brilliant(ly jerkish) strategy to make them a darling of the market by being the thing that most can’t buy and an exclusive club for the ones that can.

WLB there is atrocious I’ve heard as well. The founders will be extremely rich and they’ll probably start their own space programs. Making already rich people happy is the way to wealth in this country. Hope they are kind enough to throw some table scraps to those who live down below the Ring.

Part of the definition of a private company is control over who your stakeholders are. That's what the "public" in "public company" refers to.

I'm at Stripe and my WLB is fine fwiw. It's busy, but my managers and team do not encourage overwork.

It's 5pm Friday here and I'm about to shut down my work laptop until 8am Monday.

I feel like that's not great WLB by today's standards. 8-5 is 9 hours a day (instead of 8), and on a Friday no less, when many folks at other companies easily clock out by 3 to begin their weekend early.