[vsareto]

Sadly, companies basically have no obligation to pay out for this kind of contribution since you basically gave it to them for free. You're kinda working for 'exposure bucks' in this regard.

If you somehow save the company (provably), do you get to own the company? Likely not, although most of the lower employees probably would vote for that if it meant they kept their job vs. the company dissolving.

But companies can do this too: "If we hire you and you make a simple mistake and leak our database or something, do we get to charge you millions in potential damages?" At some point it goes to a court.

Maybe you just have to get adversarial and say "I can save you tens of millions and you should give me a million dollar bonus if it works, but if the bonus is not in writing, I won't give it to you".