I worked for a Zombie startup for 4 years. The problem was they had good enough funding to last too long. 2 years after I left they got purchased as an asset sale, which was spun into a good thing. The shares were worthless, but they got to claim that everyone kept their jobs. And instead of having to pay money on our shares, they gave current employees big fat raises the day before the acquisition and then big quarterly bonuses.

The raises and huge quarterly bonuses were a way to give out rewards without paying the shareholders.