Yes, I've ready many horror stories. The combination of "at-will" and "you lose everything if you're fired" just reeks of danger, to be honest...
I've been dangling on the edge of leaving for some time now, the options were literally the only thing keeping me there -- the hope that if I stayed for 2-3 months longer, perhaps we'll get a surprise early exit. But it seems that given how much the valuation has changed now there's some more experienced people involved, even in the case of that early exit (which is very unlikely, I know), it isn't really going to do anything for me...
> Included from deleted post above, for the history books:
> Thanks for that. I've always been skeptical, and me (or any other employees) actually believed the company should be valued at $30m when it was. Another thing I found that was; my options aren't vested. They're exercisable immediately, but are restricted in the sense that the moment I leave the company (for any reason), I lose them. From what I've heard, it's much more common for a ~4 year vesting period, at which point they're essentially 'yours', whether you stay or not. Is that unusual? From every angle, it kind of feels like we're being given a bum deal here (I won't go into salaries, demotivating work environment, 2 years of 60+ hour weeks ... )
I'm an early employee at a startup. From the go, our money has come from our founders, and from a single external investor.A year into working there, now with ~15 employees, we (most of us) were issued stock options. At this point, we were still in 'stealth mode', with no additional investment than the start.There was a valuation (as I understand it, a number picked from a mix of equations, and...