[chadash]

I don't know your financial situation. Maybe $13K isn't much to you. However, I probably wouldn't buy these shares for the following reasons:

1) The company just fired all of its employees

2) The company just fired all of its employees

3) The company just fired all of its employees

That's a really bad sign. Even if they raise additional money, it likely won't be on good terms. With the price of bitcoin way down from it's peak, and much of the "fools" money in this space dried up, I can't imagine that a company who is so close to the edge that they have to fire all of their employees is going to get great fundraising terms.

But take my advice with a grain of salt, as you obviously know and understand the company better than I do.

As an aside, the fact that you are asking here likely means that you have an emotional investment in the company. I get it. If you really have FOMO, you can always split the difference and maybe exercise half the options, or whatever amount you wouldn't mind losing. I once exercised a few thousand dollars of options knowing that it was a bad investment, but also knowing that if I was wrong and the company did well, I'd have a terrible regret. And it's purely because I worked there for a few years... it's not like I obsess over the fact that I didn't make an early investment in Amazon (where I never worked), even though logically that's the same thing.

[pbreit]

Almost certainly any new money raised would be on terms that wipe out nearly all existing holders of equity.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crammeddown.asp

[Lindathefounder]

Thanks for your answer! You hit the spot with some things. I am definitely emotionally involved with the company and considered the option of exercising only some of the options - that might be the best option at the moment. One thing to point out is that there is still a month worth of raising time (with all employees still in the company), which is significant in startup terms.

[fatnoah]

Even if the company did sell, it could be at a fire sale price and you could be inline to get paid after investors, founders, etc. IIRC, the term is Liquidation Preference. I held options for about 0.5% of my company when it was sold. They were worth $0 due to such preferences.

[everdev]

> I am definitely emotionally involved with the company

If you can find objective metrics that justify investing, great. But if the majority of your decision is emotional it's probably not a great choice.

I would look at what they're doing not what they're saying. They're playing up their opportunities, but firing everyone. The actions speak louder than their words.

Almost every startup has a great idea, a great product and a great team (and if they don't they will still sell you on the idea that they do have all these things).

What great startups have is all of those things plus great market fit plus great adoption plus great investors.

If it's all show it's a no go.

[benblu]

I would say "not really". Trying to raise with such terrible optics is not going to be a fast process.

[whoisjuan]

This. Maybe you have faith in the product and the IP, but these are worthless if the people who can help transfer all the knowledge to a possible acquirer are gone.

If the founders were the only engineers maybe there's still some chance that they can manage an acquihire for themselves, but it would be worth pennies, and any transaction will likely be below your option execution price.

Firing all the employees is a rather transparent signal that liquidation events (or any financial events) are off the table, and founders are simply debulking expenses to kill the company.

Also, the simple and straight forward solution to your problem is simply to ask them. These might be hard times for the founders but a short and candid message asking about the situation wouldn't hurt. They probably don't want you or anyone spending their money in a dead company.

[alasdair_]

> it's not like I obsess over the fact that I didn't make an early investment in Amazon (where I never worked), even though logically that's the same thing.

I have a friend who was first 50 at Amazon and let 50,000 Amazon options expire. He still did well but... FOMO is a real thing. $1000 is probably my cap in this situation however.

[hitekker]

You forgot:

4) The company just fired all of its employees

/s. An amusing and thoughtful response!