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by jacksondeane 3761 days ago
Long story short... you will likely need a liquidity event for your shares to be sold for cash.

This could be though an acquisition, IPO, or the board deciding to let you sell your shares (usually back to the company via the right of first refusal).

Your shares are sort of "worthless" until one of these events, that is the risk you take by allowing some of your compensation to be delivered in private stock.

The good news is they are offering you a .25% vested stake and a shorter-than-normal vesting period of 3 years. Once those shares vest they are yours forever, or until you sell. If you decide to leave the company there is a chance they will offer to buy you out of your vested shares, that is where you can make some cash.

3 comments

Yup. So basically value your ownership as 0 to at most $10k. If the salary and job title make sense, do it. If the pay is 50% of market rate, don't do it.
Thanks for the insight into the competitiveness of the terms. 99% sure there won't be an IPO for this company so I would need to ask him about his plans to sell or dividends I believe.
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